Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 April 2006
We consider the centrifugal separation of an initially homogeneous mixture in an asymmetric geometry. The mixture is shown to acquire a uniform and negative relative vorticity, manifested as a retrograde circulation, as the heavier phase is forced outwards by the centrifugal acceleration. The perturbation theory formulated accounts for inertial effects and endwall boundary layers as well as slight deviations of endwall shape from a level plane. The time-dependent separation process is described and the flow field, including kinematic shocks, is calculated in some cases of technological interest.