A novel micro-separator using the capillary separation effect with locally populated micro-pin-fin structure

Abstract

Phase separation is an important process in many chemical engineering applications, such as reactive processes and thermal separation processes of components. In this paper, a novel micro-separator was proposed using the capillary separation effect. The micro-pin-fins are locally populated in a rectangular microchannel, forming an enclosed region with micro pores as the boundaries. Hence, the microchannel cross section is divided into two symmetrical side regions closed to the microchannel side wall and a center enclosed region. When a two-phase stream interacts with the enclosed region boundary with micro-pores, the gas phase is prevented from entering the center enclosed region to enforce the gas phase flowing in the two side regions. Meanwhile, the liquid phase is flowing towards the center enclosed region. As a result, the twophases are separated. The effect of the separator configuration parameters such as pin-fin size and distribution is also analyzed based on the computation results. The effect of phase separation is more obvious when the cross section area of side regions is decreased.