Throttling valve and method for enlarging liquid droplet sizes in the throttled fluid stream

摘要

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.

主权项

1. A throttling valve comprising:
a housing; a valve body which is arranged in the housing; a perforated sleeve via which the valve body permits the multiphase fluid to flow from a fluid inlet channel into a fluid outlet channel, wherein the multiphase fluid stream is in a straight flow upstream of the perforated sleeve; wherein the valve body and the perforated sleeve are slidably arranged in the housing such that the valve body controls multiphase fluid flow from a fluid inlet channel into the fluid outlet channel of the valve; 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 multiphase 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, wherein the valve is such that the multiphase fluid stream is non-swirling until it is induced to swirl.