GB1101062A - Apparatus and method for separating particles from a flow of fluid - Google Patents

Abstract

1,101,062. Separating dust or liquid particles from gases; flash evaporators. GIANNOTTI ASSOCIATES. 26 Jan., 1965 [29 Jan., 1964], No. 3439/65. Headings B1B and BIT. Particles of greater density are separated from their carrier fluid by passage through a nozzle which first converges to accelerate, then diverges to decelerate the fluid, whereby the particles are concentrated in one part of the stream and are withdrawn separately from the diverging part of the nozzle. The nozzle may be divided upstream of the particle outlet by baffles of cruciform shape (Figs. 1 .. 3, not shown). In Fig. 4 a succession of nested nozzles is used, the narrowest portion of each corresponding in diameter to the entry lip of the next. The nozzles are supported by baffles at the outlet end. In Fig. 9 (not shown), the stream carrying the bulk of the particles is passed through an annular filter, surrounding the nozzles and returned to the inlet end, the flow through the filter being maintained by the induction effect of the main flow at the inlet. When used to clean an I.C. engine intake the main flow may be created by motion of the vehicle forwards, or by pressure or suction applied to the inlet or outlet sides. In Figs. 5, 6 (not shown), some of an array of separators mounted in a common plate (44) are covered by a roller blind 47, which is moved by an actuator (53), to cover the inlets of some separators and thereby maintain a constant velocity of flow through the others, in response to variations of pressure measured in a separator not covered by the blind. The arrangement may be used to remove dust or freezable or condensable constituents, such as water, from a gas stream, the constituent freezing or condensing as the gas is cooled by passing through the nozzle entrance, and the denser solid or liquid particles concentrating in the central stream as with the dust particles. In separating fresh water from salt water, the brine is heated and passed through a nozzle and boils at the point where the pressure is lowest, steam bubbles moving outwards and brine inwards. The residual brine flows into a horizontal tube passing through a diffuser (Fig. 1); and the steam is condensed to fresh water in the diffuser. Several units can be staged for progressive evaporation. Figs. 12, 13 (not shown) illustrate a rectangular-sectioned array of nozzles using the same principle as the cylindrical arrangement. The arrangement behaves as a Venturi tube, the pressure at the narrowest point being less than that at both the inlet and outlet ends.