Investigation of the flow phenomenon inside gas ejectors with moist gas entrainment

This paper focuses on the gas flow study of an ejector used in applications where moist gases are being entrained. Two parts of work are presented. In the first part, characteristics of gas flow inside an ejector, as well as the ejector's performance under various operating and geometric configurations, were studied with a three-dimensional computational model. Measurements were also performed for validation of the model. In the second part, focus was given to the potential condensation or desublimation phenomena that may occur inside an ejector when water vapor is included in the entrained stream. Experiments using light-attenuation method were performed to verify the presence of a second phase; then, the onset of phase change and the phase distribution were obtained numerically. A two-dimensional axis-symmetric model was developed based on the model used in the first part. User-defined functions were used to implement the phase-change criteria and particle prediction. A series of simulations were performed with various amounts of water vapor added into the entrained flow. It was found that both frost particles and water condensate could form inside the mixing tube depending on the operating conditions and water vapor concentrations. When the concentration exceeds 3% by mass, water vapor could condense throughout the mixing tube. Some preliminary results of the second phase particles formed, e.g., critical sizes and distributions, were also obtained to assist with the design and optimization of gas ejectors used in similar applications.