Numerical Investigation of Fluid Flow between Rotating Permeable Cylindrical Surfaces

Abstract

The paper presents numerical simulation results concerning fluid flow in the annular channel of a hydrodynamic filter comprising a perforated protective screen located between another perforated protective screen and a filtering screen, both cylindrical. We investigated the effects of the following two parameters on the flow structure: the perforated area of the protective screen and the width of the annular channel between the protective and filtering cylindrical screens. We established that increasing the annular channel width and the perforation area of the protective screen leads to secondary vortex structures forming in the channel. We obtained circumferential velocity distribution in the channel formed by the protective and filtering screens of the hydrodynamic filter. We show that, in the bracket of modal and design parameters under consideration, a power curve with an exponent in the 2.4--3.3 range may be used to approximate the circumferential velocity profile. We discovered that the structural and modal parameters of the channel between the rotating permeable cylindrical surfaces control the intensity of the deterministic separation process components. Channel width and perforation area are structural parameters; angular velocity is a modal parameter. Arranging the flow in a hydrodynamic filter in the way proposed makes it possible to decrease the intensity of random separation process components in multi-phase media.