Numerical investigation of the influences of mixing chamber geometries on steam ejector performance

•CFD simulations were carried out to investigate the performance of the ejector.•There exists an optimum mixing chamber length range.•There is a fixed optimum mixing chamber convergence angle.

In this study, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method is employed to investigate the effects of the mixing chamber geometries on the performance of steam ejectors used for multi-effect distillation systems. The internal flow characteristics of the steam ejector and the effects of the length and convergence angle of the mixing chamber were obtained. It is found that there is an optimum range of the mixing chamber length at which the ejector will acquire its largest entrainment ratio and the mixing chamber also has an optimum convergence angle at which the steam ejector performance is the best.