Numerical simulation of atomized DRA at gas pipeline inlet

In order to investigate the effect of different factors in injecting atomized DRA on pipe wall adsorption at the pipeline inlet, the atomized adding process of gas DRA is numerically simulated. The simulation includes simulating the steady state flow field at pipeline inlet to obtain a convergent gas flow field, then calculating the DRA as a series of dispersed phase droplets which are injected into inlet nozzle, and finally analyzing the effects of atomization conditions on droplets'Sauter Mean Diameter (SMD) and the performance of adsorption on the inlet pipe wall. Results show that atomizing differential pressure, atomizing flowrate, nozzle diameter and nozzle angle play a crucial role in reduction effect and drag distance of gas pipeline DRA. The bigger the atomizing differential pressure is, the smaller atomizing flowrate and smaller SMD of droplets are, and the easier for the DRA to adsorb on pipe wall is. Nozzle diameter and nozzle angle have little impact on SMD of droplets. However, when the nozzle angle gets smaller, the distance the droplets can be carried by gas flow will be longer. The research results are able to provide the theoretical basis to the engineering application of the gas DRA.