Study of a high-velocity separator on an analogue fluid system

In order to better control the separation efficiency of a centrifugal type separator developed by EDF and Stein Industrie (the High Velocity Separator), a test has been carried out on an analogue fluid system. The actual separator operates at a pressure around 2 MPa and processes the water/steam system in thermodynamic equilibrium. A mockup on a geometric scale of 0.45 has been tested with a water-argon system at a pressure of 740 kPa and a temperature of 25 deg C. It is shown that similarity criteria between the two fluid systems could be defined under certain conditions. It also allowed to define the different operating fields of the separator and to identify some possible causes of separation performance deterioration. (author) 14 figs., 3 tabs., 13 refs