Unsteadiness of the internal flow in an effervescent atomizer nozzle

Liquid atomization system has been extensively applied as the most significant process in many industrial fields. In the internal combustion engine, the combustion phenomenon is strongly influenced by the spray characteristics of the fuel given by the atomization process. In order to completely understand the whole atomization process, a detail investigation of relations between the liquid jet characteristics and the breakup phenomenon is required. In this study, a non-intrusive method called as laser tagging method by photochromic dye has been developed with aim to study the breakup process of liquid sheet in detail, covering from the behavior in film until disintegrated into ligament and droplets. The laser tagging method by photochromic dye is based on a shift in the absorption spectrum of photochromic dye molecules tagged by ultraviolet laser. The shift results a color change at the tagged region of liquid containing the dye. In this study, the motions of the dye traces were analyzed as the liquid surface velocity. As a result, liquid sheet was found to keep its velocity constantly in film before suddenly increase around broken point. However, it then decreased after broken into droplets. By forming a set of four points of dye traces on the liquid sheet, the change of relative position of the set enabled the measurement of deformation and rotational motion of the liquid sheet. As a result, the normal strain of the liquid sheet parallel to the flow direction depended on the flow behavior of ligament formation.     

在轴向气流作用下液体轴对称抛撒二次破碎的实验研究

液体轴对称抛撒的实验研究是以云雾爆轰武器的研制为背景的。为了研究轴向气流作用下液体轴对称抛撒二次破碎所形成的雾化场特性,本文利用两台激波管并对之加以改造,成功地在实验室实现了轴向气流作用下液体的轴对称抛撒。为了研究其雾化场的远场特性,本文利用激光粒子测量仪获得了在不同实验工况和不同位置下的雾化场SMD分布曲线。实验数据表明,由于轴向气流速度的增加,液体破碎的Weber数得到了提高,导致二次破碎初期雾化场的SMD随之减小;随着抛撒驱动压力的提高,二次破碎初期雾化场的SMD也随之减小;在同一工况下,雾化场SMD随着测量位置与喷口距离的增加而变大。     

在轴向气流作用下液体轴对称抛撒的近场研究

在轴向气流作用下液体轴对称抛撒的研究,是以飞行物体在运动状态下向大气抛撒液体燃料所导致的破碎和雾化为背景的。为了研究在轴向气流作用下液体轴对称抛撒所产生的雾场特性,本文提出了一种新的组合型实验设备。该设备由两台激波管、一套电子同步控制系统组成,可以观察在轴向气流作用下液体轴对称抛撒、破碎和雾化的过程。通过在此设备上的一系列实验,获得了在不同压力和不同气流速度下液体轴对称抛撒的近场纹影照片。通过对照片的研究发现,液体轴对称抛撒具有两个明显的阶段:液核生长阶段和液核稳定阶段。另外近场云雾区轮廓有明显的转折点,此转折点即为液核发生首次破碎的位置。进一步分析表明,轴向气流能促使液体轴对称抛撒首次破碎发生的时间缩短。     

液体环二次破碎所形成云雾颗粒尺寸测量和测试系统的标定

介绍了激光散射法测量颗粒尺寸系统的工作原理和标定结果,并对液体环轴对称抛撒进行了光学测量。实验结果表明,液体环二次破碎产生云雾区的液滴Ｓａｕｔｅｒ平均直径在固定点随时间的增加呈减小的趋势,而云雾区的宽度和云雾区前缘的液滴颗粒的Ｓａｕｔｅｒ平均直径则随测量的距离增加均有所增加。     

运动状态下液体轴对称抛撒首次破碎的实验研究

在实验室条件下利用组合式激波管设备,对运动状态下液体轴对称抛撒进行了实验研究。通过纹影装置获得其所形成雾化场的外形轮廓照片,测量获得了液核发生首次破碎的位置与对称轴之间的距离。通过对抛撒过程中R-T不稳定性与K-H不稳定性的分析认为,轴向气流作用下液体轴对称抛撒的首次破碎点与对称轴的距离主要由轴向气流的速度、轴向气流的密度、液体轴对称抛撒的出口速度、抛撒液体的表面张力系数、环形喷口的宽度等参数所决定。在此基础上,利用相似性理论和无量纲分析,获得了运动状态下液体轴对称抛撒首次破碎点与对称轴之间的距离与相关参数的无量纲关系式。     

Experimental and numerical investigation of the primary breakup of an airblasted liquid sheet

The primary breakup of airblast atomization is governed by complex mechanisms and is still not well understood. In recent years high speed shadowgraphy experiments and Direct Numerical Simulations of prefilming airblast atomization have been performed independently. In this paper detailed results of a combined experimental and numerical study are presented. A single operating point of a planar prefilming airblast atomizer is investigated, based on a spatial resolution of 10 µm and a consistent analysis of the liquid film in both the experimental and the numerical studies. For the analysis the three-dimensional DNS data is projected on a plane, corresponding to the data obtained by shadowgraphy. The experiment is characterized by back light illumination in conjunction with particle and ligament tracking velocimetry. A Depth of Field correction is applied to further improve the measurement accuracy. For the numerical investigation the embedded DNS approach is utilized: The primary breakup region is simulated with a highly resolved DNS, embedded in a coarser Large Eddy Simulation. The comparison comprises a phenomenological discussion of the disintegration process and quantitative results. Distributions for the breakup length, the liquid film deformation velocity, the droplet sizes and velocities are presented. The results are in good agreement and confirm the applicability of the embedded DNS and the particle and ligament tracking velocimetry for the analysis of the primary breakup of airblast atomization. This work also shows the intrinsic limitation of a diffusive interface technique as the results depend on the filtering parameter of the diffuse interface.     

Experimental study on the influence of liquid and air boundary conditions on a planar air-blasted liquid sheet,Part I: Liquid and air thicknesses

This experimental study is devoted to the influence of the air and liquid thicknesses on an air-blasted atomizer. The flow configuration corresponds to a planar liquid sheet sheared on both sides by two high velocity airflows. Using planar laser induced fluorescence, back lighting visualizations and light diffraction, flapping frequency, breakup length of the liquid sheet and droplet sizes resulting from the atomization process are measured. The results show that the influence of each fluid thickness depends on the investigated flow characteristic. Thus, breakup length is strongly correlated to liquid flow rate, whereas flapping frequency depends mainly on airflow conditions, characterized by the vorticity thickness. Concerning final droplet sizes, both previous parameters must be taken into account, leading to a correlation based on breakup length and oscillation frequency.     

Simulation of the primary breakup of a high-viscosity liquid jet by a coaxial annular gas flow

The conversion of low-grade fossil and biogenic energy resources (petcoke, biomass) to a synthesis gas in a high pressure entrained flow gasification process opens a wide spectrum for high efficient energy conversion processes. The synthesis gas can be used for production of methane (SNG), liquid fuels (BtL, CtL) or as fuel for operation of a gas turbine in a combined cycle power plant (IGCC). The production of a tar free high quality syngas is a challenging objective especially due to the fact that typical liquid or suspension fuels for entrained flow gasifiers feature viscosities up to 1000 mPas. Fuel droplet conversion at typical entrained flow gasification conditions is characterized by heat up, evaporation and subsequent degradation of the vapour phase. To guarantee a high fuel conversion rate in the gasifier an efficient atomization of the fuel is required. Mainly twin-fluid burner nozzles are used for atomization of those typically high viscous fuels. The present study is focused on the assessment of the accuracy of CFD computations for the primary breakup of high-viscosity liquids using an external mixing twin fluid nozzle. In a first step experiments were performed with a Newtonian glycerol-water-mixture featuring a liquid viscosity of 400 mPas. Jet breakup was investigated using a high speed camera as well as PIV and LDA-System for a detailed investigation of the flow field. In a second step the experimental results serve as reference data to assess the accuracy of CFD computations. Compressible large eddy simulations (LES) were performed to capture the morphology of the primary breakup as well as the important flow field characteristics. A Volume of Fluid (VOF) approach was used to track the unsteady evolution and breakup of the liquid jet. Comparison of experimental and numerical results showed good agreement with respect to breakup frequency, velocity fields and morphology.     

Breakup of liquid jets from non-circular orifices

The purpose of this investigation is to study the effect of the orifice geometry on liquid breakup. In order to develop a better understanding of the liquid jet breakup, investigations were carried out in two steps—study of low-pressure liquid jet breakup and high-pressure fuel atomization. This paper presents the experimental investigations conducted to study the flow behavior of low-pressure water jets emanating from orifices with non-circular geometries, including rectangular, square, and triangular shapes and draws a comparison with the flow behavior of circular jets. The orifices had approximately same cross-sectional areas and were machined by electro-discharge machining process in stainless steel discs. The liquid jets were discharged in the vertical direction in atmospheric air at room temperature and pressure conditions. The analysis was carried out for gage pressures varying from 0 to 1,000 psi (absolute pressures from 0.10 to 6.99 MPa). The flow behavior was analyzed using high-speed visualization techniques. To draw a comparison between flow behavior from circular and non-circular orifices, jet breakup length and width were measured. The flow characteristics were analyzed from different directions, including looking at the flow from the straight edges of the orifices as well as their sharp corners. The non-circular geometric jets demonstrated enhanced instability as compared to the circular jets. This has been attributed to the axis-switching phenomenon exhibited by them. As a result, the non-circular jets yielded shorter breakup lengths as compared to the circular jets. In order to demonstrate the presence of axis-switching phenomenon in square and triangular jets, the jet widths were plotted along the axial direction. This technique clearly demonstrated the axis switching occurring in square and triangular jets, which was not clearly visible unlike the case of rectangular jets. To conclude, non-circular geometry induces greater instabilities in the liquid jets, thereby leading to faster disintegration. Thus, non-circular orifice geometries can provide a cheaper solution of improving liquid breakup and thus may enhance fuel atomization as compared to the precise manufacturing techniques of drilling smaller orifices or using costly elevated fuel injection pressure systems.     

Secondary atomization of water and isooctane drops impinging on tilted heated surfaces

The present paper reports an experimental study aimed at characterizing the effects of heat transfer on the secondary atomization, which occurs during droplet impact on hot surfaces at conditions reproducing those occurring at fuel injection in internal combustion engines. The experiments consider single isooctane and water droplets impacting at different angles on a stainless steel surface with known roughness and encompass a range of Weber numbers from 240 to 600 and heat transfer regimes from the film-vaporization up to the Leidenfrost regime. The mechanisms of secondary breakup are inferred from the temporal evolution of the morphology of the impact imaged with a CCD camera, together with instantaneous measurements of droplet size and velocity. The combination of a technique for image processing with a phase Doppler instrument allows evaluating extended size distributions from 5.5 μm up to a few millimetres and to cover the full range of secondary droplet sizes observed at all heat transfer regimes and impaction angles. Temporal evolution of the size and velocity distributions are then determined. The experiments are reported at impact conditions at which disintegration does not occur at ambient temperature. So, any alteration observed in droplet impact behavior is thermally induced. The analysis is relevant for port fuel injection systems, where droplets injected to impact on the back surface of the valves, behave differently depending on fuel properties, particularly when the use of alcohols is considered, even as an additive to gasoline.     

Flow characteristics of spray impingement in PFI injection systems

The present paper addresses an experimental study of the dynamic exchanges between the impact of an intermittent spray and the liquid film formed over the target, based on detailed phase Doppler anemometry (PDA) measurements of droplet size, velocity and volume flux in the vicinity of the impact. The flow configuration is that of a pulsed injector spraying gasoline onto a flat disc to simulate the port fuel injection (PFI) of an internal combustion engine operating at cold-start conditions. The measurements evidence that the outcome of impact cannot be accurately predicted based on the characteristics of the free spray, but requires precise knowledge of the flow structure, induced by the target. The implications for spray–wall interaction modelling are then discussed based on the application of conservation equations to the mass, momentum and energy exchanged between the impinging droplets and the liquid film. The results show that the liquid film starts to form in the vicinity of the stagnation region at early stages of injection and a non-negligible proportion of droplets impinging at outer regions splash after interaction with the film. Film disruption is mainly driven by the intermittent axial momentum of impinging droplets, which enhances the vertical oscillations. The radial momentum imparted to the liquid film at the stagnation region is fed back onto secondary droplets emerging later during the injection cycle at outwards locations, where momentum of impacting droplets is much smaller. As a consequence, although the number of splashed droplets is enhanced by normal momentum, their size and ejection velocity depends more on the radial spread induced onto the liquid film and, hence, on the radial momentum at impact. The analysis further shows that existing spray–wall interaction models can be improved if the dynamic exchanges between the impacting spray and the liquid film are accounted.     

On the experimental investigation on primary atomization of liquid streams

The production of a liquid spray can be summarized as the succession of the following three steps; the liquid flow ejection, the primary breakup mechanism and the secondary breakup mechanism. The intermediate step—the primary breakup mechanism—covers the early liquid flow deformation down to the production of the first isolated liquid fragments. This step is very important and requires to be fully understood since it constitutes the link between the flow issuing from the atomizer and the final spray. This paper reviews the experimental investigations dedicated to this early atomization step. Several situations are considered: cylindrical liquid jets, flat liquid sheets, air-assisted cylindrical liquid jets and air-assisted flat liquid sheets. Each fluid stream adopts several atomization regimes according to the operating conditions. These regimes as well as the significant parameters they depend on are listed. The main instability mechanisms, which control primary breakup processes, are rather well described. This review points out the internal geometrical nozzle characteristics and internal flow details that influence the atomization mechanisms. The contributions of these characteristics, which require further investigations to be fully identified and quantified, are believed to be the main reason of experimental discrepancies and explain a lack of universal primary breakup regime categorizations.     

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.     

Special characteristics of the breakup of liquid drops with a high gas pressure

In a majority of power plants, the conversion of a liquid fuel into combustion products takes place at high pressure and with a high velocity of the motion of the gas. It is natural that in the choice of the working scheme of the process account must be taken of the effect of possible changes in the characteristics of the atomization process of a liquid fuel, connected with a change in the density of the gas. Of particular importance is the effect of perturbations of the pressure and the velocity on the behavior of liquid drops in a high-density gas flow. The number of communications in which such questions are discussed is very limited, since an overwhelming number of experiments were made at atmospheric pressure [1–7]. Only articles [8, 9] give qualitative concepts with respect to the effect of perturbations of the pressure on the breakup of drops with a gas pressure up to 30 atm. From the information given in [8, 9] it is difficult to form a judgment with respect to the change in the critical conditions and the time parameters of the process of the breakup of drops with a rise in the initial pressure (density) of the gas.     

Use of Faraday instabilities to enhance fuel pulverisation in air-blast atomisers

The atomization of liquids into a spray is an important process in many industrial applications and particularly in the aero-engine sector. Conventional air-blast injectors in aircraft engines today use aerodynamic shearing effects to atomize the liquid fuel. However, at operating conditions where the air velocity is below 30 m/s (such as ground start and high altitude restart) the atomization quality is poor. Consequently combustion is less efficient with high pollutant emissions. The objective of this study is to validate a new concept of injector which couples the shearing effects with the principle of ultrasonic atomization. The latter consists of using piezoelectric actuators to generate the oscillations of a wall in contact with the liquid film. This excitation perpendicular to the liquid film surface creates Faraday instabilities at the liquid/air interface. Amplitudes higher than a defined threshold value induce the break-up of ligaments and the formation of droplets. To cite this article: M. Boukra et al., C. R. Mecanique 337 (2009).     

气体速度对液膜在预膜板表面流动形态影响的LBM模拟

为了探究气流剪切作用对航空燃油在气动雾化喷嘴预膜板上流动形态的影响,首先对基于相场理论的两相流格子Boltzmann模型进行修正,并通过经典算例验证了修正后模型的准确性和可靠性.随后利用该模型模拟了同向气流驱动下液膜在水平预膜板表面上的流动,分析了气流速度对液膜流动形态的影响规律.研究表明,该模型可准确追踪具有大密度比的气液相界面的形态变化;气液剪切速度差会诱发两相界面出现Kelvin-Helm-holtz不稳定性现象,因而当气体速度升高时,气液剪切速度差增大,不仅液膜流动速度随之增高,且在铺展阶段液膜会产生较高振幅的波浪面并加快铺展过程,自由表面波动增强.     

Numerical study on dynamic characteristics of double droplets impacting a super-hydrophobic tube with different impact velocities

ABSTRACT

The coupled level set and volume of fluid method is applied to the numerical study on the successive impact of double droplets on a super-hydrophobic tube. The impact velocity varies from 0.25 to 2?m/s. These impact processes present spread, retract, rebound, breakup and splash. The out-of-phase impact takes place with the impact velocity from 0.25 to 1.25?m/s, while the in-phase impact takes place with the impact velocity from 1.44 to 2?m/s. With the impact velocity larger than 1.25?m/s, the liquid crown presents and deforms after the trailing droplet impact, then it would gather at the film edge, rebound or break up. When impact velocities range from 1.44 to 1.5?m/s, the finger liquid film presents before the liquid crown appearing. The finger head breaks with the impact velocity of 1.5?m/s during the leading droplet spreading. The zigzag liquid film becomes more obvious for larger velocities.     

Spray features in the near field of a flow-blurring injector investigated by high-speed visualization and time-resolved PIV

In a flow-blurring (FB) injector, atomizing air stagnates and bifurcates at the gap upstream of the injector orifice. A small portion of the air penetrates into the liquid supply line to create a turbulent two-phase flow. Pressure drop across the injector orifice causes air bubbles to expand and burst thereby disintegrating the surrounding liquid into a fine spray. In previous studies, we have demonstrated clean and stable combustion of alternative liquid fuels, such as biodiesel, straight vegetable oil and glycerol by using the FB injector without requiring fuel pre-processing or combustor hardware modification. In this study, high-speed visualization and time-resolved particle image velocimetry (PIV) techniques are employed to investigate the FB spray in the near field of the injector to delineate the underlying mechanisms of atomization. Experiments are performed using water as the liquid and air as the atomizing gas for air to liquid mass ratio of 2.0. Flow visualization at the injector exit focused on a field of view with physical dimensions of 2.3 mm × 1.4 mm at spatial resolution of 7.16 µm per pixel, exposure time of 1 µs, and image acquisition rate of 100 k frames per second. Image sequences illustrate mostly fine droplets indicating that the primary breakup by FB atomization likely occurs within the injector itself. A few larger droplets appearing mainly at the injector periphery undergo secondary breakup by Rayleigh–Taylor instabilities. Time-resolved PIV is applied to quantify the droplet dynamics in the injector near field. Plots of instantaneous, mean, and root-mean-square droplet velocities are presented to reveal the secondary breakup process. Results show that the secondary atomization to produce fine and stable spray is complete within a few diameters from the injector exit. These superior characteristics of the FB injector are attractive to achieve clean combustion of different fuels in practical systems.     

Progress in miniature liquid film combustors: Double chamber and central porous fuel inlet designs

One of the key limits to miniaturizing the size of liquid fueled combustors is the atomization process applied in meso-scale systems. A single-wall fuel-film combustor was introduced recently as one of the successful liquid fuel combustors at the meso-scale. Instead of atomizing the fuel, film combustors spread out a liquid film along the wall and absorb the heat transferred from the flame for vaporization. With a single-wall film design, however, there are some unexpected and disadvantageous combustion phenomena. This paper attempts to improve the single-wall film combustor by exploring separately a double chamber concept and a central porous fuel delivery concept. These two configurations help describe the limits and the potential of liquid fuel-film miniature combustors. The double chamber design demonstrates how heat transfer issues can be overcome by injecting the fuel-film on the outside of the primary combustor wall rather than on the inside, and the second design demonstrates a flame-holding mechanism using a porous material set on the bottom of the chamber. The combustion behavior in these two configurations is compared with that in the original single-wall miniature fuel-film combustor, revealing new aspects that are relevant to portable power generation with high specific energy and power.     

Secondary atomization

When a drop is subjected to a surrounding dispersed phase that is moving at an initial relative velocity, aerodynamic forces will cause it to deform and fragment. This is referred to as secondary atomization. In this paper, the abundant literature on secondary atomization experimental methods, breakup morphology, breakup times, fragment size and velocity distributions, and modeling efforts is reviewed and discussed. Focus is placed on experimental and numerical results which clarify the physical processes that lead to breakup. From this, a consistent theory is presented which explains the observed behavior. It is concluded that viscous shear plays little role in the breakup of liquid drops in a gaseous environment. Correlations are given which will be useful to the designer, and a number of areas are highlighted where more work is needed. This material is based upon work supported under a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.