Venturi scrubbers: Pressure loss and regain

Abstract

Pressure loss in the throat of a venturi scrubber is offset by regain in the diverging section. Available models for venturi scrubber pressure drop that consider regain are difficult to use because they require numerical integration or reference to published figures. This note presents an expression for pressure regain in the diverging section that, with an expression for pressure loss in the throat, gives a single, simple equation for overall pressure drop in a venturi scrubber. Predictions made with this equation, and with models from the literature, are compared with data for three venturi scrubbers operated at throat velocities from 20 to 160 m/s at liquid-to-gas ratios from 0.2 to 2.3 × 10 -3. Predictions from the new equation are at least as good as predictions of the complex models that also consider regain, and about as easy to obtain as analytical models that ignore regain. © 1985 Elsevier Science Publishing Co., Inc.