Passive Liquid/Vapor Separation Using an Inertia Driven Rotating Drum

We plan to develop a passive liquid/vapor phase separation technology that is based on a freely rotating drum. The drum can separate the liquid and vapor phases with less than 1% carryover for both. It is driven by the inertia of the incoming two-phase fluid and no power is needed. The rotation provides a centrifugal acceleration that is much larger than 10g. Thus the drum will function well in micro and variable gravity (up to 10g). The Phase I effort will start with testing an air/water separator to confirm our analysis and improve our current design. The separator performance will be evaluated in terms of carryover and pressure loss at different air/water compositions and flow rates. Based on these experiments, a phase separator will be designed for a 12-kW R134a cooling system. We will also assess the scalability to one MW heat load and include weight and volume estimates. In Phase II, the R134a phase separator will be built and will replace a gravity-dependent unit that is currently used at RTI. We will perform detailed analysis and extensive testing, including transient and steady state operations. Testing under various orientations, micro and variable gravity conditions will be considered as well.