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US 2008/0173363 A1Published application
Throttling Valve and Method for Enlarging Liquid Droplet Sizes in the Throttled Fluid Stream
AssigneeTwister B.V.
InventorMarco Betting
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Abstract
A Joule-Thompson or other throttling valve comprises an outlet channel (7) in which swirl imparting means (10) impose a swirling motion to the cooled fluid stream discharged by the valve, thereby inducing liquid droplets to swirl towards the outer periphery (7A) of the fluid outlet channel (7) and to coalesce into enlarged liquid droplets (17) which can be separated easily from a gaseous or other carrier fluid.
Claims16
A throttling valve comprising
- a housing;
- a valve body which is movably arranged in the housing to control the flux of a fluid stream flowing from a fluid inlet channel into a fluid outlet channel of the valve such that the fluid stream is expanded and cooled;
- swirl imparter which imposes a swirling motion to the fluid stream flowing through the fluid outlet channel;
- wherein the swirl imparter is oriented such that if the valve is fully opened the fluid stream swirls about a longitudinal axis of the fluid outlet channel thereby inducing liquid droplets that are formed during the expansion along the flow path of the valve to swirl towards the outer periphery of the fluid outlet channel and to coalesce.
1 more element
A method for enlarging droplet sizes in a multiphase fluid stream comprising the steps of:
- flowing liquid droplets and a carrier fluid through an outlet section of a throttling valve;
- using available free pressure in the throttling valve for isenthalpic expansions and creating a swirling flow in the fluid stream flowing through the outlet channel of the valve thereby inducing liquid droplets to swirl towards the outer periphery of the fluid outlet channel and to coalesce.
A throttling valve comprising:
- a housing;
- a valve body which is movably arranged in the housing such that the valve body controls multicomponent fluid flow from a fluid inlet channel into the fluid outlet channel of the valve;
- a perforated sleeve via which the multicomponent fluid flows from the fluid inlet channel into the fluid outlet channel if in use the valve body permits fluid to flow from the fluid inlet channel into the fluid outlet channel;
- and
- wherein at least some perforations of the sleeve have an at least partially tangential orientation relative to a longitudinal axis of the sleeve, such that the multicomponent fluid is expanded and converted into a multiphase fluid stream, which is induced to swirl within the fluid outlet channel and liquid droplets are induced to swirl towards the outer periphery of the fluid outlet channel and to coalesce into enlarged liquid droplets.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.