CFD - An effective tool for optimizing picket fence geometries

摘要

The phases of the liquid-liquid dispersion are separated by gravity in an extraction settler. This separation phenomenon is made more effective by picket fences. The picket fence geometry has a significant effect on the separation process and, furthermore, this geometry has to be designed according to prevailing pressure drop requirements. In this study a method for optimizing the geometry of the picket fences including calculations of the pressure drop over applied fences have been studied using CFX software package. The fence pressure drops in a pilot unit have been compared with obtained numerical modeling results. It can be concluded that the used CFD-software proved to be a quite reliable tool for dimensioning picket fence geometries, when a sufficiently fine grid is used.