Studies on stability and dynamics of a swirling jet

The temporal instability and nonlinear evolution of the swirling jet near a nozzle exit are studied by both normal-mode method and three dimensional direct numerical simulation (3D DNS). It is found that the swirl enhances the maximum linear growth rates for negative helical modes, while decreases the growth rate for axisymmetric mode. Numerical simulations show that the evolution in early stage is compared well with the linear stability theory. In nonlinear stage, the swirl promotes the breakup of 3D large scale organized structures in the flow into small eddies. The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (19772052)     

Bag breakup of nonturbulent liquid jets in crossflow

An experimental investigation of the bag breakup of round nonturbulent liquid jets in gaseous crossflow at room temperature and pressure is described. Pulsed photography, pulsed shadowgraphy, and high-speed imaging were used to observe the column and surface waves along the liquid jet and the formation and breakup of bags. Measurements included: wavelengths of column and surface waves, jet velocities, the number of bags along the liquid jet, the number of nodes per bag, droplets sizes and velocities, and trajectories of droplets. Present results show that the column waves of a nonturbulent liquid jet in crossflow within bag breakup regime can be explained based on Rayleigh–Taylor instability. The number of nodes per bag affected the breakup mechanism of the bags. Three distinctive sizes of droplets were produced due the breakup of the bag membrane, the ring strings and the ring nodes. The size of the droplets resulting from the breakup of the bag membrane was constant independent of the crossflow Weber number. Finally different trajectories were observed for the three groups of droplets.     

Temporal analysis of breakup for a power law liquid jet in a swirling gas

The breakup mechanism and instability of a power law liquid jet are investigated in this study. The power law model is used to account for the non-Newtonian behavior of the liquid fluid. A new theoretical model is established to explain the breakup of a power law liquid jet with axisymmetric and asymmetric disturbances, which moves in a swirling gas. The corresponding dispersion relation is derived by a linear approximation, and it is applicable for both shear-thinning and shear-thickening liquid jets. Analysis results are calculated based on the temporal mode. The analysis includes the effects of the generalized Reynolds number, the Weber number, the power law exponent, and the air swirl strength on the breakup of the jet. Results show that the shear-thickening liquid jet is more unstable than its Newtonian and shear-thinning counterparts when the effect of the air swirl is taken into account. The axisymmetric mode can be the dominant mode on the power law jet breakup when the air swirl strength is strong enough, while the non-axisymmetric mode is the domination on the instability of the power liquid jet with a high We and a low Re _n . It is also found that the air swirl is a stabilizing factor on the breakup of the power law liquid jet. Furthermore, the instability characteristics are different for different power law exponents. The amplitude of the power law liquid jet surface on the temporal mode is also discussed under different air swirl strengths.     

Application of maximum entropy method for droplet size distribution prediction using instability analysis of liquid sheet

This paper describes the implementation of the instability analysis of wave growth on liquid jet surface, and maximum entropy principle (MEP) for prediction of droplet diameter distribution in primary breakup region. The early stage of the primary breakup, which contains the growth of wave on liquid–gas interface, is deterministic; whereas the droplet formation stage at the end of primary breakup is random and stochastic. The stage of droplet formation after the liquid bulk breakup can be modeled by statistical means based on the maximum entropy principle. The MEP provides a formulation that predicts the atomization process while satisfying constraint equations based on conservations of mass, momentum and energy. The deterministic aspect considers the instability of wave motion on jet surface before the liquid bulk breakup using the linear instability analysis, which provides information of the maximum growth rate and corresponding wavelength of instabilities in breakup zone. The two sub-models are coupled together using momentum source term and mean diameter of droplets. This model is also capable of considering drag force on droplets through gas–liquid interaction. The predicted results compared favorably with the experimentally measured droplet size distributions for hollow-cone sprays.     

Temporal and spatial instability of an inviscid compound jet

This paper examines the linear hydrodynamic stability of an inviscid compound jet. We perform the temporal and the spatial analyses in a unified framework in terms of transforms. The two analyses agree in the limit of large jet velocity. The dispersion equation is explicit in the growth rate, affording an analytical solution. In the temporal analysis, there are two growing modes, stretching and squeezing. Thin film asymptotic expressions provide insight into the instability mechanism. The spatial analysis shows that the compound jet is absolutely unstable for small jet velocities and admits a convectively growing instability for larger velocities. We study the effect of the system parameters on the temporal growth rate and that of the jet velocity on the spatial growth rate. Predictions of both the temporal and the spatial theories compare well with experiment.Dedicated to the memory of Professor Tasos C. Papanastasiou     

Instability of a compound liquid jet

In the linear Rayleigh theory [1] the degree of stability of a jet is determined by the viscosity and inertia characteristics of the fluids and the interphase surface tension. The stability of a jet in an infinite medium increases with increase in the viscosity of both the jet and the medium [2, 3]. The presence of two interfaces is responsible for various features of the development of instability in a liquid layer on the surface of a cylinder, and in particular a layer on the inner surface of a cylinder is more unstable than one on the outer surface [4]. In [5, 6] the breakup of a hollow jet in an external medium was investigated. In this paper we examine, in the linear approximation, the stability of a compound jet of nonmiscible liquids with respect to small axisynmetric perturbations of the interfaces. The instability characteristics are given for jets with inviscid and very viscous outer shells. The conditions governing the suppression of rapidly growing instabilities of the inner part (core) of the jet by a viscous shell are determined.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 4, pp. 3–8, July–August, 1985.     

Nonlinear analysis of the deformation and breakup of viscous microjets using the method of lines

We present a numerical model for predicting the instability and breakup of viscous microjets of Newtonian fluid. We adopt a one‐dimensional slender‐jet approximation and obtain the equations of motion in the form of a pair of coupled nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs). We solve these equations using the method of lines, wherein the PDEs are transformed to a system of ordinary differential equations for the nodal values of the jet variables on a uniform staggered grid. We use the model to predict the instability and satellite formation in infinite microthreads of fluid and continuous microjets that emanate from an orifice. For the microthread analysis, we take into account arbitrary initial perturbations of the free‐surface and jet velocity, as well as Marangoni instability that is due to an arbitrary variation in the surface tension. For the continuous nozzle‐driven jet analysis, we take into account arbitrary time‐dependent perturbations of the free‐surface, velocity and/or surface tension as boundary conditions at the nozzle orifice. We validate the model using established computational data, as well as axisymmetric, volume of fluid (VOF) computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations. The key advantages of the model are its ease of implementation and speed of computation, which is several orders of magnitude faster than the VOF CFD simulations. The model enables rapid parametric analysis of jet breakup and satellite formation as a function of jet dimensions, modulation parameters, and fluid rheology. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effect of Nozzle Exit Turbulence on the Column Trajectory and Breakup Location of a Transverse Liquid Jet in a Gaseous Flow

This study examines the effect of fully developed turbulent flow at the exit of nozzle/injector on the trajectory and column breakup location of a liquid jet injected transverly into a gaseous crossflow. Liquid jet trajectory and column breakup for different nozzle geometries at different velocities of liquid jet and crossflow are analytically and experimentally Investigated. Shadowgraph imaging technique is used to determine the jet trajectory and breakup location of a transverse liquid jet in a uniform airflow. Particle image velocimetry (PIV) is used to measure the near-field velocity profile of a liquid jet discgarged into a quiescent atmosphere. The experimental results show a higher penetration and breakup height for the liquid jet ensuing from a nozzle with a smaller length to diameter ratio. This is due to the surface irregularities of the liquid column of a turbulent jet, which breaks up and consequently follows the cross airflow sooner. In order to capture the effect of turbulence, the analytical trajectory correlation developed in our previous studies is modified to account for the discharge coefficient of a nozzle. The discharge coefficient is estimated indirectly by comparing the liquid column trajectory predicted by the modified analytical correlation with that determined experimentally. The indirectly determined discharge coefficient is then used in the analytical correlation for predicting the breakup height of a transverse liquid jet. The results predicted using this approach are in good agreement with the experimental data of the present study at standard temperature and pressure (STP) test conditions.     

可压缩旋转气体中超空化射流的热稳定性

液体射流热稳定性研究是对射流稳定性问题的更深层次的探讨,可以进一步加深对液体射流分裂与雾化机理的认识,具有重要的学术意义和工程应用价值. 基于射流稳定性理论,在同时考虑射流周围气体旋转、射流和周围气体可压缩性以及射流液体中含空化气泡的条件下,建立了描述可压缩旋转气体中超空化射流热稳定性的数学模型,并对数学模型及其求解方法进行了验证分析;在此基础上,分析了液体射流表面与周围气体间温差及射流内部温度梯度同时作用下对射流稳定性的影响;并进一步探讨了超空化射流的热稳定性. 结果表明,射流表面扰动波的最大扰动增长率、最不稳定频率以及最大扰动波数皆随气液温差的增大呈近似线性增大趋势;射流内部温度梯度的存在使得气液温差对射流的失稳作用更加显著;射流内部温度梯度会抑制超空化对射流稳定性的影响,但气液温差会在一定程度上促进超空化对射流的失稳作用.      

The breakup and atomization of a viscous liquid jet

Based on the linear analysis of stability, a dispersion equation is deduced which delineates the evolution of a general 3-dimensional disturbance on the free surface of an incompressible viscous liquid jet. With respect to the spatial growing disturbance mode, the numerical results obtained from the solution of the dispersion equation reveal that a dimensionless parameterJ _e exists. AsJ _e>1, the axisymmetric disturbance mode is most unstable; and whenJ _e<1, the asymmetric disturbances come into being, their growth rate increases with the decrease, ofJ _e, till one of them becomes the most unstable disturbance. The breakup of a low-speed liquid jet results from the developing of axisymmetric disturbances, whose instability is produced by the surface tension; while the atomization of a high-speed liquid jet is brought about by the evolution of nonaxisymmetric disturbance, whose instability is caused by the aerodynamic force on the interface between the jet and the ambient gas. The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China     

电场作用下无黏聚焦射流的时间不稳定性研究

基于电场作用下的流动聚焦实验建立了简化的理论模型,开展了带电同轴液气射流的时间不稳定性分析.在无黏假设下,得到了扰动在时间域内发展演化的解析形式的色散关系,分析了主要控制参数对不稳定模态的影响.结果表明,只有轴对称扰动和第一类非轴对称扰动在时间域内是增长的;液气界面的表面张力对轴对称扰动有着双重影响而对非轴对称扰动起抑制作用;外层气体的流速以及密度的增加均能促进射流的失稳.这些结论与实验结果是定性一致的.结果也表明,在不考虑初始界面电荷密度时,单一的轴向电场能抑制射流的失稳.      

液体环轴对称抛洒首次破碎的理论分析

对于水和无水乙醇环形轴对称抛洒实验的首次破碎结果的分析表明，在给定实验条件下，液体密度大约是气体的1000倍，液体首次破碎的过程分2个阶段:首先，界面不稳定性非线性发展，液体尖钉在惯性力和空气阻力的作用下，拉伸变细变长；然后在射流不稳定性的作用下，断裂成液体珠串。这个理论分析给出的首次破碎的平均液体直径与实验结果基本一致。理论分析表明，无水乙醇破碎液滴的平均直径比水液滴小，是无水乙醇表面张力值仅为水的1/3的一个必然结果。     

Surface instability and primary atomization characteristics of straight liquid jet sprays

Using the detailed numerical simulation data of primary atomization, the liquid surface instability development that leads to atomization is characterized. The numerical results are compared with a theoretical analysis of liquid–gas layer for a parameter range close to high-speed Diesel jet fuel injection. For intermittent and short-duration Diesel injection, the aerodynamic surface interaction and transient head formation play an important role. The present numerical setting excludes nozzle disturbances to primarily investigate this interfacial instability mechanism and the role of jet head. The first disturbed area is the jet head region, and the generated disturbances are fed into the upstream region through the gas phase. This leads to the viscous boundary layer instability development on the liquid jet core. By temporal tracking of surface pattern development including the phase velocity and stability regime and by the visualization of vortex structures near the boundary layer region, it is suggested that the instability mode is the Tollmien–Schlichting (TS) mode similar to the turbulent transition of solid-wall boundary layer. It is also demonstrated that the jet head and the liquid core play an interacting role, thus the jet head cannot be neglected in Diesel injection. In this study, this type of boundary layer instability has been demonstrated as a possible mechanism of primary atomization, especially for high-speed straight liquid jets. The effect of nozzle turbulence is a challenging but important issue, and it should be examined in the future.     

Numerical investigation of turbulent-jet primary breakup using one-dimensional turbulence

Primary breakup to form droplets at liquid surfaces is an important fundamental process to study as it determines the initial properties of the dispersed phase, which affect mixing rates, secondary breakup, droplet collisions, and flow separation within the dispersed flow region. Primary breakup can be regarded as one of the least developed model components for simulating and predicting liquid jet breakup. However, it is of paramount importance in many technical applications, e.g. fuel injection in engines and spray painting. This paper presents a numerical investigation of primary breakup of a turbulent liquid jet in still air at standard conditions using the one-dimensional turbulence (ODT) modeling framework. ODT is a stochastic model that simulates turbulent flow evolution along a notional 1D line of sight by applying instantaneous maps to represent the effect of individual turbulent eddies on property profiles. An important feature of ODT is the resolution of all relevant scales, both temporal and spatial. The restriction to one spatial dimension in ODT permits affordable high resolution of interfacial and single-phase property gradients, which is key to capturing the local behavior of the breakup process and allows simulations at high Reynolds and Weber numbers that are currently not accessible to direct numerical simulations (DNS).This paper summarizes our extensions of the ODT model to simulate geometrically simple jet breakup problems, including representations of Rayleigh wave breakup, turbulent breakup, and shear-driven breakup. Each jet breakup simulation consists of a short temporal channel section to initialize a turbulent velocity profile at the nozzle exit followed by an adjacent jet section. The simulations are carried out for jet exit Reynolds number of 11,500, 23,000, 46,000 and 92,000 while the Weber number is varied within the range 10²–10⁷. We present results on breakup statistics including spatial locations of droplet release, droplet sizes and liquid core length. The results on primary breakup are compared to experimental results and models.     

An Eulerian–Lagrangian hybrid model for the coarse-grid simulation of turbulent liquid jet breakup

In this paper we present a numerical model for the coarse-grid simulation of turbulent liquid jet breakup using an Eulerian–Lagrangian coupling. To picture the unresolved droplet formation near the liquid jet interface in the case of coarse grids we considered a theoretical model to describe the unresolved flow instabilities leading to turbulent breakup. These entrained droplets are then represented by an Eulerian–Lagrangian hybrid concept. On the one hand, we used a volume of fluid method (VOF) to characterize the global spreading and the initiation of droplet formation; one the other hand, Lagrangian droplets are released at the liquid–gas interface according to the theoretical model balancing consolidating and disruptive energies. Here, a numerical coupling was required between Eulerian liquid core and Lagrangian droplets using mass and momentum source terms. The presented methodology was tested for different liquid jets in Rayleigh, wind-induced and atomization regimes and validated against literature data. This comparison reveals fairly good qualitative agreement in the cases of jet spreading, jet instability and jet breakup as well as relatively accurate size distribution and Sauter mean diameter (SMD) of the droplets. Furthermore, the model was able to capture the regime transitions from Rayleigh instability to atomization appropriately. Finally, the presented sub-grid model predicts the effect of the gas-phase pressure on the droplet sizes very well.     

A regularised one-dimensional drop formation and coalescence model using a total variation diminishing (TVD) scheme on a single Eulerian grid

The breakup of an axisymmetric viscous jet is considered in the lubrication approximation. The discretised equations are solved on a fixed equidistant one-dimensional Eulerian grid. The governing equations are implemented in a conservative second order accurate total variation diminishing (TVD) scheme, preventing the numerical diffusivity. Singularities that occur at pinchoff and coalescence are regularised by a small modification on the surface tension. The modification is of the order of the spatial step Δx. This regularisation ensures that the solution of the presented numerical model converges to the exact solution of the breakup of a jet in the lubrication approximation. The results of the presented numerical model agree quantitatively with the analytical solution of the Rayleigh–Plateau instability, and with experimental results on the final stage of the Rayleigh–Plateau instability.     

Spatially developing secondary instabilities in compressible swept airfoil boundary layers

Two-dimensional eigenvalue analysis is used on a massive scale to study the spatial instabilities of compressible shear flows with two inhomogeneous directions. The main focus of the study is crossflow dominated swept-wing boundary layers although the methodology can also be applied to study other types of flows, such as the attachment-line flow. Certain unique aspects of formulating a spatial, two-dimensional eigenvalue problem for the secondary instability of finite amplitude crossflow vortices are discussed, namely, fixing the spatial growth direction unambiguously through a non-orthogonal formulation of the linearized disturbance equations. A primary test case used for parameter study corresponds to Numerical results are presented for the low-speed, NLF-0415(b) airfoil configuration as tested in the ASU Unsteady Wind Tunnel, wherein a spanwise periodic array of roughness elements was placed near the leading edge in order to excite stationary crossflow modes with a specified fundamental wavelength. The two classes of flow conditions selected for this analysis include those for which the roughness array spacing corresponds to either the naturally dominant crossflow wavelength, or a subcritical wavelength that serves to reduce the growth of the naturally excited dominant crossflow modes. Numerical predictions are compared with the measured database, both as indirect validation for the spatial instability analysis and to provide a basis for comparison with a higher Reynolds number, supersonic swept-wing configuration. Application of the eigenvalue analysis to the supersonic configuration reveals that a broad spectrum of stationary crossflow modes can sustain sufficiently strong secondary instabilities as to potentially cause transition over this configuration. In particular, the control mode itself, if initiated with too large an amplitude, may lead to an earlier transition.     

Nonlinear instability of an annular liquid sheet exposed to gas flow

Nonlinear instability and breakup of an annular liquid sheet has been modeled in this paper. The liquid sheet is considered to move axially and is exposed to co-flowing inner and outer gas streams. Also, the effect of outer gas swirl on sheet breakup has been studied. In the developed model a perturbation expansion method has been used with the initial magnitude of the disturbance as the perturbation parameter. This is a comprehensive model in that other geometries of planar sheet and a coaxial jet can be obtained as limiting cases of very large inner radius and inner radius equal to zero, respectively. In this temporal analysis, the effect of liquid Weber number, initial disturbance amplitude, inner gas-to-liquid velocity ratio, outer gas-to-liquid velocity ratio and outer gas swirl strength on the breakup time is investigated. The model is validated by comparison with earlier analytical studies for the limiting case of a planar sheet as well as with experimental data of sheet breakup length available in literature. It is shown that the linear theory cannot predict breakup of an annular sheet and the developed nonlinear model is necessary to accurately determine the breakup length. In the limiting case of a coaxial jet, results show that gas swirl destabilizes the jet, makes helical modes dominant compared to the axisymmetric mode and decreases jet breakup length. These results contradict earlier linear analyses and agree with experimental observations. For an annular sheet, it is found that gas flow hastens the sheet breakup process and shorter breakup lengths are obtained by increasing the inner and the outer gas velocity. Axially moving inner gas stream is more effective in disintegrating the annular sheet compared to axially moving outer gas stream. When both gas streams are moving axially, the liquid sheet breakup is quicker compared to that with any one gas stream. In the absence of outer gas swirl, the axisymmetric mode is the dominant instability mode. However, when outer gas flow has a swirl component higher helical modes become dominant. With increasing outer gas swirl strength, the maximum disturbance growth rate increases and the most unstable circumferential wave number increases resulting in a highly asymmetric sheet breakup with shorter breakup lengths and thinner ligaments.     

Liquid jet in a high Mach number air stream

The instability of circular liquid jet immersed in a coflowing high velocity air stream is studied assuming that the flow of the viscous gas and liquid is irrotational. The basic velocity profiles are uniform and different. The instabilities are driven by Kelvin–Helmholtz instability due to a velocity difference and neckdown due to capillary instability. Capillary instabilities dominate for large Weber numbers. Kelvin–Helmholtz instability dominates for small Weber numbers. The wavelength for the most unstable wave decreases strongly with the Mach number and attains a very small minimum when the Mach number is somewhat larger than one. The peak growth rates are attained for axisymmetric disturbances (n = 0) when the viscosity of the liquid is not too large. The peak growth rates for the first asymmetric mode (n = 1) and the associated wavelength are very close to the n = 0 mode; the peak growth rate for n = 1 modes exceeds n = 0 when the viscosity of the liquid jet is large. The effects of viscosity on the irrotational instabilities are very strong. The analysis predicts that breakup fragments of liquids in high speed air streams may be exceedingly small, especially in the transonic range of Mach numbers.     

On the stability of plane parallel viscoelastic shear flows in the limit of infinite Weissenberg and Reynolds numbers

Elastic effects on the hydrodynamic instability of inviscid parallel shear flows are investigated through a linear stability analysis. We focus on the upper convected Maxwell model in the limit of infinite Weissenberg and Reynolds numbers. We study the effects of elasticity on the instability of a few classes of simple parallel flows, specifically plane Poiseuille and Couette flows, the hyperbolic-tangent shear layer and the Bickley jet.The equation for stability is derived and solved numerically using the spectral Chebyshev collocation method. This algorithm is computationally efficient and accurate in reproducing the eigenvalues. We consider flows bounded by walls as well as flows bounded by free surfaces. In the inviscid, nonelastic case all the flows we study are unstable for free surfaces. In the case of wall bounded flow, there are instabilities in the shear layer and Bickley jet flows. In all cases, the effect of elasticity is to reduce and ultimately suppress the inviscid instability.