Journal of Microfluidic and Nanofluidic Research

Journal of Microfluidic and Nanofluidic Research

Numerical Study of Fluid Flow in Venturi Scrubbers

Document Type : Research Article

Authors
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Bu Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran
Abstract
Venturi scrubbers are among the most efficient and widely employed devices in industrial air pollution control, designed to remove suspended particles and gaseous pollutants from gas streams by exploiting the Venturi effect to enhance gas-liquid contact. This study investigates the influence of varying gas mass flow rates and geometric parameters, including converging and diverging angles and section dimensions, on pressure drop and velocity distributions in five distinct Venturi scrubber designs. Numerical simulations using Ansys Fluent under turbulent, steady-state conditions with Reynolds numbers from 1.37×105 to 2.81×105 reveal that increasing gas flow rate raises pressure drop in a nonlinear fashion due to enhanced pressure recovery in the diverging section. The throat section consistently exhibits maximum fluid velocity, largely governed by throat cross-sectional area and gas flow rate, whereas variations in converging angle have minimal impact. Diverging angle significantly affects pressure behavior: larger divergence angles lead to greater pressure drops from flow separation and vortices, while smaller angles improve pressure recovery and reduce pressure loss. Enlarging geometric dimensions by 30% decreases pressure drop by 65.5% and lowers throat velocity by 40.9%, indicating potential energy savings at the cost of reduced mixing intensity.
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