| 摘要 |
A concentrator or mixture separator usable, for example, for significantly increasing the amount of proppant in a formation-fracturing foam is disclosed. In a particular embodiment the concentrator or separator is comprised of a substantially horizontally extending vessel, a rotor rotatably mounted inside the vessel on a shaft and a motor for rotating the shaft. The vessel has a slurry intake at a forward end and a concentrated slurry discharge and proppant carrier discharge at the rearward end. Mounted on the shaft near the slurry intake is a cylindrical stabilizer which is for imparting a spin to the incoming slurry. Also mounted on the shaft, downstream of the stabilizer is an intake impeller assembly which can be comprised of a plurality of annular intake impellers, a discharge assembly which can be comprised of a plurality of annular discharge impellers, and a connecting housing therebetween. A substantially proppant-free carrier is drawn into the intake impellers and axially discharged thereby into a central channel while the concentrated slurry is axially forced by the higher intake pressure along an outer channel forward between the rotors and the vessel. The discharge impellers discharge the carrier and the concentrated slurry is discharged out the slurry discharge. In a particularly preferred embodiment, the intake impeller assembly has a plurality of intake channels which spiral inwardly in the direction of impeller rotation so that an approximated free-vortex flow pattern is obtained and so that the fluid being drawn into the impeller must have a tangential velocity component and be travelling faster than the rotor.
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