A two-equation turbulence model for jet flows laden with vaporizing droplets

A two-equation turbulence model for steady incompressible two-phase flows including phase change has been recently developed by Mostafa & Elghobashi (1984). This model is tested for the flow of a turbulent axisymmetric gaseous jet laden with evaporating liquid droplets. To avoid the problem of density fluctuations of the carrier phase at this stage, only isothermal flow is considered and vaporization is assumed to be due to the vapor concentration gradient. The continuous size distribution of the droplets is approximated by finite size groups. Each group is considered as a continuous phase interpenetrating and interacting with the carrier phase. Two test cases have been predicted by the model. The first is for a Freon-11 spray issuing from a round nozzle, where experimental data are available at distances equal to or greater than 170 nozzle diameters. Good agreement between the data and the predictions was achieved. The second is for a methanol spray where no experiments are available yet and the predictions consider the flow region close to the nozzle ($\text{z/D < 40}$). The results of the methanol spray include distributions of the mean velocity, volume fractions of the different phases, concentration of the evaporated material in the carrier phase, turbulence intensity and shear stress of the carrier phase, droplet diameter distribution, and the jet spreading rate. In this case the results are analyzed based on a qualitative comparison with the corresponding single phase jet flow.