Study of the thermal mixing between two non-isothermal sprays using combined three-color LIF thermometry and phase Doppler analyzer

The aim of this experimental work was to demonstrate the ability of three-color laser-induced fluorescence (3cLIF) thermometry to study the thermal mixing of two non-isothermal water sprays. Combined 3cLIF-phase Doppler analyzer measurements were also implemented to derive correlations between droplet size and temperature. Both sprays had different characteristics in terms of flow rate and droplet size distribution. The liquid spray was successively pre-heated, and the other spray was maintained and injected at ambient temperature. The thermal mixing will be discussed in light of a wide set of experimental results obtained under various experimental conditions, including different liquid flow rates, droplet size distributions and droplet concentrations. To analyze the potential effect of droplet coalescence on the mean local liquid temperature, both sprays were alternatively seeded with fluorescent dye. Main results show that significant heating of cold spray is possible when the hot spray is injected with the higher flow rate. Moreover, this heating affects only the smallest droplets.     

Characterization of fan spray atomizers through numerical simulation

The present paper focuses on the mathematical modeling of industrial fan spray atomizers. The two-phase flow taking place inside the nozzle’s tip and the exterior region near the outlet of three different industrial nozzle designs has been modeled and simulated. As a result, valuable information has been obtained regarding the influence of the inner geometry on the flow and also the formation and development of the liquid sheet. Characteristic magnitudes such as the discharge coefficient and the liquid sheet thickness factor have been obtained and validated through experimental measurements. The accumulation of liquid at the border of fan-shaped liquid sheets, also known as rim, has been studied in the analyzed designs, revealing the presence of a tangential velocity component in the liquid sheet and a relationship between the incoming flow rate of the rim and the angle of the liquid sheet. The dependence of the results on turbulence modeling has also been analyzed, drawing interesting conclusions regarding their influence on the liquid sheet mean flow characteristics and on the surrounding gas. Thus, the mathematical model developed has been proved to be a useful tool for nozzle manufacturers; it provides the most important characteristic parameters of the liquid sheet formed given certain nozzle geometry and, additionally, those data necessary to carry out studies of instability, breakup and atomization of the liquid sheet.     

Numerical study of global rainbow technique: sensitivity to non-sphericity of droplets

The measurement of droplet temperature and size distribution in sprays is a difficult task. To reach this aim, the global rainbow technique (GRT) has been developed on the assumption that the synthetic rainbow created by a large number of droplets is insensitive to the non-sphericity of droplets if the droplets’ orientations were sufficiently random. In order to test this assumption, numerical as well as experimental analyses of GRT are carried out by our team. As a companion to the work done in experiments, the objective of this work is to quantify the sensitivity of the GRT to the non-sphericity of droplets from a numerical aspect. Light scattering properties around the rainbow angle are investigated by using the Null-field method within a T-matrix formulation, both for a single spheroid in an arbitrary orientation and for an ensemble of spheroids in random orientations illuminated by a plane wave. Refractive index and size distribution of droplets are extracted from simulated global rainbow signals so as to quantify the sensitivity of the GRT to the non-sphericity. Exemplifying results are compiled and presented. Additionally, comparisons between the Null-field method and the generalized Lorenz-Mie theory for spheroids are also provided in this paper.     

Fluctuations of a spray generated by an airblast atomizer

This paper is devoted to the study of the aerodynamic instability of the spray generated by an airblast atomizer. As a result of this instability the spray shape and its velocity fluctuate with a certain frequency, which depends on the operational parameters of the atomizer. The effect of three parameters, namely; chamber pressure, liquid phase flow rate and the gas phase flow rate on the spray fluctuating frequency are investigated. The velocity vector of the drops in the spray and the arrival times to the detection volume are measured using the laser Doppler instrument. The slotting technique is applied to the data of axial velocity and arrival times of the drops in order to estimate the dominating spray frequencies. Additionally, the shape of the spray has been observed using the high-speed video system. The frequencies of the shape fluctuations are estimated using proper orthogonal decomposition of the time-resolved images of the spray. We show that the frequencies of the spray velocity and those exhibited by spray shape coincide over a wide range of spray parameters. Finally, a simple scaling for the spray frequency is proposed and validated by the experimental data.     

Numerical modeling and experimental measurements of water spray impact and transport over a cylinder

This study compares experimental measurements and numerical simulations of liquid droplets over heated (to a near surface temperature of 423 K) and unheated cylinders. The numerical model is based on an unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) formulation using a stochastic separated flow (SSF) approach for the droplets that includes submodels for droplet dispersion, heat and mass transfer, and impact on a solid surface. The details of the droplet impact model are presented and the model is used to simulate water spray impingement on a cylinder. Computational results are compared with experimental measurements using phase Doppler interferometry (PDI). Overall, good agreement is observed between predictions and experimental measurements of droplet mean size and velocity downstream of the cylinder.     

A Eulerian/Lagrangian model to calculate the evolution of a water droplet spray

We introduce a Eulerian/Lagrangian model to compute the evolution of a spray of water droplets inside a complex geometry. To take into account the complex geometry we define a rectangular mesh and we relate each mesh node to a node function which depends on the location of the node. The time-dependent incompressible and turbulent Navier-Stokes equations are solved using a projection method. The droplets are regarded as individual entities and we use a Lagrangian approach to compute the evolution of the spray. We establish the exchange laws related to mass and heat transfer for a droplet by introducing a mass transfer coefficient and a heat transfer coefficient. The numerical results from our model are compared with those from the literature in the case of a falling droplet in the atmosphere and from experimental investigation in a wind tunnel in the case of a polydisperse spray. The comparison is fairly good. We present the computation of a water droplet spray inside a complex and realistic geometry and determine the characteristics of the spray in the vicinity of obstacles.     

Characterization of a water mist based on digital particle images

The characteristics of a water mist, such as the droplet size and velocity distribution, the water mist atomization angle and the breakup length were determined with a newly developed nonintrusive pattern method, particle image velocimetry and sizing (PIVS), which is mainly based on the manipulation of digital particle images. A series of experiments were conducted using a semiconductor laser (with wavelength 650 nm and about 35-50-mW power), a plano-convex cylindrical lens and some other lenses to produce a light sheet approximately 1-mm thick. The typical results of a water mist under different conditions are shown in this paper.     

The mechanics and deformation of high temperature steel frame rapidly cooled by spray water in fire fighting

A finite element is established for analyzing the dynamical mechanics and deformation of steel frame at high temperature when it is rapidly cooled down by spray water in fire fighting. The simulation result shows that remarkable mechanical coupling effects are produced in the process, and the sectional stress in rapid cooling down is found considerably larger than that in heating-up. Meanwhile, the stress and deformation of a beam mainly related to cooling rate and location are much larger than those of a column in rapid cooling. In fire fighting, the structure on the first or second floor was more dangerous than those on other floors in rapid cooling. These results could provide a theoretical reference for the design of steel structure and fire fighting.     

An experimental study of non-isothermal miscible displacements in a Hele-Shaw cell

Non-isothermal miscible displacements in a radial Hele-Shaw cell were experimentally investigated using a scheme in which room temperature liquids of relatively high viscosity were displaced by high-temperature (80 °C), less-viscous liquids. Fundamental characteristics have been presented regarding how the effect of a non-isothermal field on miscible displacement patterns varies in terms of factors such as the viscosity ratio of the more- and less-viscous liquids at 20 °C, M₂₀, the rate of an increase in the pattern’s area, R, and the gap width of the cell, b. The concept of area density was used to quantitatively evaluate the effect of the non-isothermal fields on the patterns. We have found that the effect of the non-isothermal field on the patterns does not monotonically vary with M₂₀ and b. In contrast, it increases with R in the present experimental condition. The experimental results can be explained by introducing an assumption in which heat is transferred mainly to the plates of the cell, in other words, the temperature of the more-viscous liquid remains constant, whereas that of the less-viscous liquid spatiotemporally decreases and the viscosity of it increases along with the temperature decrease. Visualization of non-isothermal field in the cell has been done by means of a thermo sheet and the results support the assumption mentioned above.     

Interaction of a polydisperse spray with vortices

The objective of the present work is to provide, through the association of optical diagnostics on a well-chosen experimental configuration, new insights into the coupling of a vortical gaseous flow with a polydisperse evaporating spray representative of practical injections. A cloud of droplets is injected in an inert laminar round jet, axisymmetric and pulsated, enabling the study of the interaction of strong-vorticity structures with a polydisperse spray. The experiment is a laboratory-scale representation of realistic injection configurations such as in engine combustion chambers or industrial burners. The chosen set-up leads to a well-controlled configuration and allows the coupling of two optical diagnostics, particle imaging velocimetry (PIV) and interferometric particle imaging (IPI), which leads to the study of both the flow dynamic and the droplet size distribution. The behaviour of droplets is analysed regarding their relaxing and evaporating properties. Size-conditioned preferential concentration of both weakly evaporating and strongly evaporating sprays is investigated. Droplet trajectories are also analysed by means of high-rate tomographic visualizations. The time history between their ejection from the nozzle and their interaction with the vortex is strongly related to the droplet preferential concentration and the observed heterogeneous repartition in the gas flow.     

Numerical solution of natural convection flow past a non-isothermal vertical flat plate

The problem of natural convection over a semi-infinite flat plate with non-uniform wall temperature is studied by using a numerical method. The local rates of heat transfer as a function of the distance along the plate are tabulated for a range of Prandtl numbers (0.01 to 100) and for a few cases of wall temperature distributions. Such tabulations serve as a reference against which other approximate solutions can be compared in the future.     

Heat transfer of spray cooling using alumina/water nanofluids with full cone nozzles

The transient temperatures of a metal testing plate during spray cooling using alumina/water nanofluids were measured. The heat transfer coefficient (HTC) was calculated by an inverse heat-conduction technique using the measured temperatures. The results show a decrease of approximately 20?% of the HTC of spray cooling with the nanoparticle suspension changing from 0 to 16.45?%. The nature and the reason of the HTC deduction were investigated and the HTC correlations with the mass fluxes and nanoparticle fraction were specifically reported.     

FPIV study of gas entrainment by a hollow cone spray submitted to variable density

The gas entrainment in a hollow cone spray submitted to variable density is studied experimentally in order to better understand the effect on mixture formation. Particle image velocimetry on fluorescent tracers, associated with a specific processing of the instantaneous velocity fields have been applied to obtain measurement in the close vicinity of the spray edge. In the “quasi-steady” region of the spray, important effect of the ambient density on the mass flow rate of entrained gas have been pointed out. The axial evolution of is in good agreement with an integral model that takes the momentum exchange between phases into account.     

A semi-analytic solution of a wellbore in a non-isothermal low-permeability porous medium under non-hydrostatic stresses

The transient stress, displacement, pore pressure and temperature fields around a wellbore in a thermo-poro-elastic (THM) medium subject to non-hydrostatic remote stresses are analyzed under non-isothermal plane-strain conditions. The linear THM model proposed by Coussy (1989) is adopted in the analysis with a focus on thermal effects in low-permeability saturated rocks, characterized by a latent heat associated with local changes of fluid mass content. Non-dimensionalized parameters are identified by reformulating the fully-coupled governing equations and boundary conditions. The wellbore problem is simplified by decomposing it into axisymmetric and deviatoric loading cases. The corresponding analytical solutions are obtained in Laplace space. The inverse Laplace transforms are performed numerically to find the time-dependent distributions of field variables in the rock mass around the wellbore. These numerical results show that although the pore pressure diffusion has little influence on temperature and stress, temperature changes can strongly affect the pore pressure and stress around the wellbore. The temperature change can lead to changes in near-well stresses and the resulting significant change in wellbore breakdown pressure illustrates the importance of considering the THM coupling.     

Necking in non-isothermal high-speed spinning as a problem of sensitivity to external disturbances

Necking in non-isothermal high-speed melt spinning is treated as a problem of sensitivity to external disturbances at both ends of the spin-line. Necessary conditions for existence of necking are formulated in terms of the corresponding increments of velocities, forces, viscosities, etc. It is shown that necking may be present in the high-inertia range for a rather small viscosity variation. Small inertia effects require higher values of the radial viscosity gradients.     

Heat transfer from non-isothermal surfaces in the stagnation-point flow of a micropolar fluid

Summary This paper contains a numerical study of the development of the thermal boundary layer on an impermeable flat surface, following a step change in surface temperature, for stagnation-point flow of a micropolar fluid. A study is made of the relative effects of the individual parameters in the equations, and a comparison of certain integral parameters, representative of the flow, is used to assess the accuracy of the results.

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Zusammenfassung Diese Arbeit enthält eine numerische Untersuchung der Entwicklung der thermischen Grenzschicht auf einer undurchlässigen ebenen Oberfläche nach stufenförmigem Sprung in der Oberflächentemperatur für die Staupunktsströmung einer mikropolaren Flüssigkeit. Die relativen Auswirkungen der einzelnen Parameter in den Gleichungen werden untersucht und ein Vergleich von gewissen, für die Strömung repräsentativen integralen Parametern wird durchgeführt, um die Genauigkeit der Ergebnisse abzuschätzen.

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With 4 figures and 1 table     

Optimization study of spray detonation initiation by electric discharges

Development of air-breathing pulse detonation engines is faced with a challenging problem of detonation initiation in fuel sprays at distances feasible for propulsion applications. Extensive experimental study on initiation of a confined n-hexane spray detonation in air by electric discharges is reported. It is found that for direct initiation of spray detonation with minimal energy requirements (1) it is worth to use one discharger located near the closed end of a detonation tube and at least one additional discharger downstream from it to be triggered in-phase with primary shock wave arrival; (2) the discharge area should be properly insulated to avoid electric loss to metal tube walls; (3) discharge duration should be minimized to at least 50 μs; (4) discharge channel should preferably occupy a large portion of a tube cross-section; (5) test tube should be preferably of a diameter close to the limiting tube diameter; (6) gradual transition between the volume with electric discharger and the tube should be used; and (7) a powerful electric discharger utilized for generating a primary shock wave can be replaced by a primary shock wave generator comprising a relatively low-energy electric discharger, Shchelkin spiral, and tube coil. With all these principles implemented, the rated electric energy of about 100 J was required to initiate n-hexane spray–air detonation in a 28-mm tube at a distance of about 1 m from the atomizer. PACS 02.60.Cb; 05.10.Ln; 47.11.+j; 47.15.Cb; 47.40.Nm This paper was based on work that was presented at the 19th Inter-national Colloquium on the Dynamics of Explosions and Reactive Systems, Hakone, Japan, July 27 - August 1, 2003     

Effect of ambient density and orifice diameter on gas entrainment by a single-hole diesel spray

The gas entrainment into a non-vaporizing single-hole Diesel spray submitted to variable density is studied experimentally in order to better understand the effect on mixture formation. Particle Image Velocimetry on fluorescent tracers has been applied to obtain measurement in the flow field surrounding the spray. The “quasi-steady” region of the spray (far from the head vortex) as well as the non-stationary region has been investigated. Significant effects of both ambient density and nozzle diameter on gas entrainment have been pointed out.     

Flow characteristics of a large-size pressure-atomized spray using DTV

The purpose of this study is to characterize the atomization of a jet of water sprayed into the air at high velocity through a commercial nozzle widely used for sprinkler irrigation. The typical diameter of the droplets present in the spray is in the range of several tens of micrometers to several millimeters. They are visualized by ombroscopy. A specific Droplet Tracking Velocimetry (DTV) technique is developed to estimate the size and velocity of these highly polydispersed droplets that are distinctly non spherical. This analysis is performed from the rupture of the liquid core region (about a distance of 550 nozzle diameters) to the dispersed zone (about a distance of 900 nozzle diameters). With this technique, we obtain joint size-velocity measurements that are rarely produced. Especially two velocity components and also a large diameter range are characterized at the same time; while with other techniques, such as Particle Doppler Anemometry (PDA), the diameter range is quite reduced and requires specific settings. Additional measurements of the liquid volume fraction are performed using a single mode fiber-optic probe. In the light of our experimental data, it appears that the turbulent droplet motion in the spray is strongly anisotropic. This anisotropy is quite unexpected because other studies on sprays (generally concerned with engine applications) show a relatively low anisotropy. We attribute this increase of anisotropy to the fact that, for this type of spray, the droplet relaxation time is long in comparison to the characteristic time of the turbulence and that biggest droplets are still submitted to atomization process. This strong anisotropy is responsible for the poor radial dispersion of the spray.