Flow Simulation in Direct-Flow Gas Centrifuges

Simpler and cheaper once-through gas centrifuges are of interest for the enrichment of light elements. Such centrifuges are, on the one hand, optimized in terms of separative power and on the other hand do not contain elements that complicate the design. The classical theory of separation of a binary mixture in a oncethrough gas centrifuge is based on solving the conservation equation for the targeted component in an optimized hydrodynamic field consisting of two separate coaxial flows. A numerical simulation of a flow close to such a model in a direct-flow gas centrifuge was performed in the present work. The dependence of the flow character on the rarefaction parameter was studied. The possibility of implementing the model of isolated flows in a continuum regime was confirmed. The developed approach based on a solution of the kinetic equation by the method of discrete velocities can be used in the more general case of an arbitrary flow regime.