Simulation of a Venturi scrubber using a one-dimensional model for capturing dust particles with liquid droplets

Description

Micron sized dust particles are known to have a fatal effect on human bodies, especially the lungs and the heart. Therefore the standards for air pollution control are becoming increasingly stringent, so that there is a demand for more effective pollution control technologies. One of the classical types of air pollution control are Venturi scrubbers. Their advantages include a high efficiency for small particles, low capital costs and maintenance costs. Since the major operation cost of a Venturi scrubber is determined by the pressure drop, many computational models for the prediction of pressure drop are available [1]. A model that is proposed by Boll [2] agrees reasonably well with experimental data [1]. A slightly modified version of this model is implemented in MATLAB and tested against experimental data [3], [4]. Many of the available models for the calculation of pressure drop and dust capturing efficiency assume the droplets to be mono-dispersed spheres of a constant, empirically determined diameter. To eliminate this deficiency, the following procedure is applied: Knowing the initial droplet size distribution, the scrubbing liquid is modelled by droplet trajectories, each representing a certain diameter and mass flow rate according to the initial size distribution. As a result of the shear forces acting on the droplets, they will disintegrate into smaller droplets. After the breakup process, the trajectories represent more droplets of smaller diameters.

Period	01 Jul 2009
Event title	EMC 2009 Innsbruck
Event type	Conference
Location	AustriaShow on map