Sputnik coal distributors are widely applied in coal separation plants and biased outputs are frequently encountered. The present paper aims to develop a numerical model for simulating the flow of the carrier liquid within a distributor chamber. The model uses simple homogeneous multi-phase flow model and performs well in terms of successfully predicting the important phenomena within the distributor chamber, such as the strong vortex in the upper chamber and channeling through the slots on the orifice plate, as observed experimentally. The model provides necessary information for particle flow modeling and offers a useful tool to trouble-shooting of operations and optimization of design for such type of devices. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.