Integrated Moisture Separator Design Using CFD

The challenge faced by compressor industries is for an efficient, reliable compressed air machine. In order to achieve this, moisture separator plays a key role in removing the bulk water coming out of the cooler. But the cost investment on an external moisture separator has made industries to rethink for alternate approach. In this regard this paper presents an integrated moisture separator design as a cost effective solution using a commercially available CFD algorithm with Eulerian-Lagrangian Multiphase approach. The principal finding from this study suggests that the hook shape fin arrangement upstream and downstream leads to uniform flow distribution with better separation efficiency. The steady state CFD simulation is in good agreement with corresponding experimental test data. Numerous parameters were validated such as droplet size, droplet impingement, Stokes number, Weber number, Reynolds number, separation efficiency and pressure drop. Thus the results indicate that steady state CFD may be an effective design tool.