Pressure Drop and Liquid Distribution in a Venturi Scrubber: Experimental Data and CFD Simulation

Venturi scrubbers are widely used to control industrial emissions, because of their high efficiency in the removal of particles from gases. To correctly size and design these equipments, detailed information on the fluid dynamics is very important. The purpose of this article is to study, both experimentally and through CFD simulations, the fluid dynamics of the gas and liquid phases in the core of the throat of a rectangular Venturi scrubber under different experimental conditions. The variables studied were the pressure and the volumetric fraction of each phase. The standard kappa-epsilon turbulence model and the volume of fluid (VOF) multiphase model, as implemented in the ANSYS Fluent 12.0 software, were employed. Liquid distribution inside the throat of the Venturi was studied experimentally, using optical imaging techniques. The results indicate that the model and numerical procedures were able to describe both the pressure drop profile and the liquid jet formation and trajectory successfully. The results suggest that, for the same gas and liquid flow rates, the number of liquid injection orifices does not affect the pressure drop, but affects significantly the liquid fraction distribution profile inside the equipment.