A vortex cluster is a set of vertical tubes inside a vessel. Gas enters each tube on a tangent, spins, and the G-force throws liquid and solids to the wall while the clean gas leaves up the centre. No moving parts. This page explains it — and what an inspector looks for once one is in service.
How it works ↓Ask a questionAn internal, not a vessel. It goes inside a separator — new or existing — and does the separating.
Several vertical tubes mounted in a vessel, each with a large tangential entry and internal baffling. The vessel gives the volume; the tubes do the work.
Spinning the stream inside a tube creates G-force. Liquids and solids are the heavies — they go to the wall and slide down. Gas is the light — it leaves up the low-pressure core in the middle.
Because the separation is by density, liquids of different densities separate from each other too, not just from the gas.
A single vortex tube can flood when a big slug of liquid arrives. A cluster spreads a slug or a surge across many tubes and keeps separating, which also shrinks residence time and vessel size against a conventional design.
Follow one parcel of gas through a tube.
The stream enters the side of the tube on a tangent, so it is already spinning as it arrives. No nozzle, no impeller — the geometry does it.
The spin compresses the liquid against the tube wall and squeezes the gas out of it. Solids go with the liquid.
A low-pressure "tornado core" forms on the tube axis. Clean gas climbs it and leaves through the top of the tube.
Liquids and solids exit the bottom of the tube into the vessel sump. Internal orifice plates stop liquid climbing back into the tubes.
Anywhere gas carries liquid or solids it should not — as a retrofit into an existing vessel or built into a new one.
The designers of the cluster internal publish roughly 1 psi of pressure drop, turndown up to 10:1, and removal of solids and free liquids into the micron range. Those are the maker's figures, not ours — see the source below. What every operator notices first is the one that never changes: nothing inside rotates, so nothing inside wears out.
The vessel is still a pressure vessel. The internal adds a few things to look at.
Shell and heads, nozzles, welds, supports, thickness against t-min, corrosion rate and remaining life — the internal changes none of that. The U-1 still governs the design basis.
The inlet is where velocity and solids meet the wall. Look for erosion at the entry and along the first turn; measure it, do not eyeball it.
Support rings, tube-to-plate welds and hold-downs carry vibration and thermal cycling. Cracks start at the toes; MT or PT them at the internal.
Fouled plates and blocked drains show up first as carryover downstream. Check them clean, check the drain nozzles for corrosion under the liquid line.
Rising pressure drop, liquid carryover, or solids downstream mean the tubes are fouled, eroded or flooded — reasons to open the vessel, not to wait for the interval.
Drawing, material, weld map and inspection points for the internal belong on the vessel's own record, so the next inspector knows what is inside before the manway comes off.
About the technology, about inspecting a vessel that has one, or about this name. It goes privately to the owner of this site.