Publications

This paper presents the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis of the vapor flow inside the Evaporation Chamber (EC) of a two-effect Multi-Effect Distillation (MED) unit. The study is part of the EU–Egypt funded project Multipurpose Applications by Thermodynamics Solar. The numerical analysis investigates the effect of velocity variations on the EC’s carryover factor and demister pressure drop for different separation baffle configurations. The trajectory of liquid droplets was calculated using Lagrange approach. The computational model was verified by comparing the predicated results (vapor pressure drop through the demister and separation efficiency) with those obtained from published data, with good agreement. At the design inlet vapor velocity of 3.3 m/s, a new baffle configuration is presented and is characterized by the best performance among the other configurations. This new baffle configuration shows a minimum carryover factor of 0.097 with a reasonable demister pressure drop less than 13.4% of the originally designed one. The study could be considered a benchmark and a helpful guideline for future designs of MED-EC.