Investigation of acoustic effect on liquid residue ejection from the closed vessel with a drain valve

Abstract

The concept, schematic solution, and methodology for liquid residue passivation using additional acoustic impact based on a gas jet emitter when introducing gas into a closed vessel (CV) containing liquid residue have been developed. A methodology for numerical modeling of the process of liquid droplet entrainment from the CV using the Ansys Fluent software package has been developed, based on gas supply into the tank. The method consists of two interrelated physical-mathematical models (PMM): 1) PMM of gas introduction into CV taking into account additional acoustic impact and creation of two-phase flow structure with subsequent entrainment of liquid droplets through the drain valve into the environment; 2) PMM of acoustic cavitation occurrence in the liquid volume taking into account the assessment of vapor occurrence inside the liquid with subsequent use of these results as initial conditions in PMM on formation of two-phase gas flow. The influence of additional acoustic impact during gas introduction into the CV on the ejection of liquid residue was evaluated. The results showed that accounting for acoustic cavitation increases the entrainment of liquid droplets by approximately 40 %.