Modeling of droplet collision-induced breakup process

The present article proposes a new droplet collision model considering droplet collision-induced breakup process with the formation of satellite droplets. The new model consists of several equations to investigate the post-collision characteristics of colliding droplets and satellite droplets. These equations are derived from the conservations of droplet mass, momentum, and energy between before and after collision, and make it possible to predict the number of satellite droplets, and the droplet size and velocity in the analytical way. To validate the new collision model, numerical calculations are performed and their results are compared with experimental data published earlier for binary collision of water droplets. It is found from the results that the new model shows good agreement with experimental data for the number of satellite droplets. It can be also shown that the predicted mean diameter by the new model decrease with increasing the Weber number because of the collision-induced breakup, whereas the O’Rourke model fails to predict the size reduction via the binary droplet collision.     

A multiphysics model for charged liquid droplet breakup in electric fields

A computational multiphysics model for simulating the formation and breakup of droplets from axisymmetric charged liquid jets in electric fields is developed. A fully-coupled approach is used to combine two-phase flow, electrostatics, and transport of charged species via diffusion, convection, and migration. A conservative level-set method is shown to be robust and efficient for interface tracking. Parametric simulations are performed across a range of fluid properties corresponding to commonly used liquids in inkjet printing and spray applications to examine their role in jet evolution and droplet formation. Specifically, the effects of electric potential drop, surface tension, viscosity, and mobility are investigated. Droplet velocity and size distributions are calculated, and the corresponding mean values are found to increase and decrease respectively with increasing electric field strength. The variations in droplet velocity and size are quantified, and droplet size and charge levels agree well with experimental values. Increasing mobility of charged species is found to enhance jet velocity and accelerate droplet formation by shifting charge from the liquid interior to the interface.     

Some features of spray breakup in effervescent atomizers

The near orifice spray breakup at low GLR (gas to liquid ratio by mass) values in an effervescent atomizer is studied experimentally using water as a simulant and air as atomizing gas. From the visualizations, the near orifice spray structures are classified into three modes: discrete bubble explosions, continuous bubble explosions and annular conical spray. The breakup of the spray is quantified in terms of the mean bubble bursting distance from the orifice. The parametric study indicates that the mean bubble bursting distance mainly depends on airflow rate, jet diameter and mixture velocity. It is also observed that the jet diameter has a dominant effect on the bubble bursting distance when compared to mixture velocity at a given airflow rate. The mean bubble bursting distance is shown to be governed by a nondimensional two-phase flow number consisting of all the aforementioned parameters. The location of bubble bursting is found to be highly unsteady spatially, which is influenced by flow dynamics inside the injector. It is proposed that this unsteadiness in jet breakup length is a consequence of varying degree of bubble expansion caused due to the intermittent occurrence of single phase and two-phase flow inside the orifice.     

Numerical investigation of droplet pre-dispersion in a monodisperse droplet spray dryer

Monodisperse droplet spray dryers have great advantages in particle formation through spray drying because of their ability to produce uniform sized particles. Experimental analyses of this system have shown that droplets atomized through the piezoceramic nozzle need to be sufficiently well dispersed before entering the drying chamber to achieve sufficiently dried particles. However, the dispersion dynamics cannot be readily observed because of experimental limitations, and key factors influencing the dispersion state currently remain unclear. This study carried out numerical simulations for droplet dispersions in the dispersion chamber, which allow this important process to be visualized. The systematic and quantitative analyses on the dispersion states provide valuable data for improving the design of the dispersion chamber, and optimizing the spray drying operation.     

Modelling spray impingement using linear stability theories for droplet shattering

This paper compares several linear‐theory‐based models for droplet shattering employed for simulations of spray impingement on flat wall surface or a circular cylinder. Numerical simulations are conducted using a stochastic separated flow (SSF) technique that includes sub‐models for droplet dynamics and impact. Results for spray impingement over a flat wall indicate that the linear theory applicable for a single droplet impact over‐predicts the number of satellite (or secondary) droplets upon shattering when compared to experimental data. The causes for the observed discrepancies are discussed. Numerical simulation results for spray impingement over a circular cylinder in cross flow are obtained and discussed. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

液滴在气体介质中剪切破碎的数值模拟研究

液滴变形和破碎是燃料抛撒问题的重要过程.本文将VOF方法和标准k-ε湍流模型组合,建立了计算液滴在气流中变形破碎过程的数值方法.数值模拟了相关的实验,计算得到的液滴破碎过程与实验结果符合较好.在此基础上,分析了几个关键参数(Weber数、Ohnesorge数、液气密度比)对液滴破碎过程的影响.计算结果表明,Weber数...     

Determination of the aerodynamic droplet breakup boundaries based on a total force approach

The determination of the critical We_g number separating the different breakup regimes has been extensively studied in several experimental and numerical works, while empirical and semi-analytical approaches have been proposed to relate the critical We_g number with the Oh_l number. Nevertheless, under certain conditions, the Re_g number and the density ratio ε may become important. The present work provides a simple but reliable enough methodology to determine the critical We_g number as a function of the aforementioned parameters in an effort to fill this gap in knowledge. It considers the main forces acting on the droplet (aerodynamic, surface tension and viscous) and provides a general criterion for breakup to occur but also for the transition among the different breakup regimes. In this light, the present work proposes the introduction of a new set of parameters named as We_g,eff and Ca_l monitored in a new breakup plane. This plane provides a direct relation between gas inertia and liquid viscosity forces, while the secondary effects of Re_g number and density ratio have been embedded inside the effective We_g number (We_g,eff)     

Simulation of liquid jet primary breakup: Dynamics of ligament and droplet formation

Primary atomization of liquid injected at high speed into still air is investigated to elucidate physical processes by direct numerical simulation. With sufficient grid resolution, ligament and droplet formation can be captured in a physically sound way. Ligament formation is triggered by the liquid jet tip roll-up, and later ligaments are also produced from the disturbed liquid core surface in the upstream. Ligament production direction is affected by gas vortices. Disturbances are fed from the liquid jet tip toward upstream through vortices and droplet re-collision. When the local gas Weber number is O(1), ligaments are created, thus the ligament or droplet scale becomes smaller as the bulk Weber number increases. Observation of droplet formation from a ligament provides insights into the relevance between the actual droplet formation and pinch-off from a slow liquid jet in laboratory experiments. In the spray, the dominant mode is the short-wave mode driven by propagative capillary wave from the ligament tip. An injection nozzle that is necessary for a slow jet is absent for a ligament, thus the long-wave (Rayleigh) mode is basically not seen without the effect of stretch. By the present simulation, a series of physical processes have been revealed. The present result will be extended to LES modeling in the future.     

Adaptive collision meshing and satellite droplet formation in spray simulations

Improved numerical methods and physical models have been applied to droplet collision modeling. Numerically, an adaptive collision mesh method is developed to calculate collision rate. This method produces a collision mesh that is independent of the gas phase mesh and adaptively refined according to local parcel number density. An existing model describing the satellite droplet formation during the collision process is improved to reflect the experimental findings that the satellite droplets are much smaller than the parent droplets. The adaptive collision mesh and the improved satellite model have been used to simulate three impinging spray experiments. The model was able to qualitatively predict the occurrence of small satellite drops and bi-modal post-collision drop size distributions. The effect of the collision mesh and the satellite droplet model on a high-speed non-evaporating diesel spray is also assessed.     

Flow characteristics of an underexpanded jet and its application to the study of droplet breakup

The jet from an axiymmetric convergent nozzle has been investigated at pressure ratios of 1.9 and 3.6 corresponding to exit Mach numbers of unity and 1.49. Velocity characteristics were measured with a laser-Doppler velocimeter and complemented by shadography which showed the structure of the expansion-compression waves. The sinuous longitudinal variations of the axial velocity are shown to be large at the higher pressure ratio with amplitudes which decreased with increasing distance from the jet exit and from the axis. The use of the jet for the quantification of droplet breakup is considered and it is evident that the higher pressure ratio requires careful consideration of the location at which a droplet is allowed to fall into the jet.Financial support from the Ministry of Defence under agreement 2037/001/CBDE is gratefully acknowledged.     

液滴撞击超疏水壁面反弹及破碎行为研究

液滴撞击壁面时,壁面亲水性对液滴撞击壁面后的变化历程具有重要的影响。利用相界面追踪的复合Level Set-VOF方法对液滴撞击超疏水壁面的运动进行了研究。研究结果表明,撞击速度较小时,液滴撞壁后发生反弹;撞击速度较大时,液滴撞壁后会发生破碎现象;初始粒径的增大和表面张力的减小,有利于液滴撞壁后产生铺展破碎现象;撞击角度对撞壁后的液滴行为具有较大的影响。通过数值模拟,给出了一定条件下液滴垂直及倾斜撞击超疏水壁面反弹及破碎的临界条件。     

Emerging applications for models of molecular rheology

Our understanding of the rich and complex motion of macromolecules has developed rapidly in recent years, particularly in the entangled regime. In this paper we highlight examples of research that has exploited our detailed picture of macromolecular motion. These studies encompass a broad range of areas in polymer physics, including neutron scattering under strong flow, tear properties of oriented polymers, flow-induced crystallisation and single molecule rheology of biopolymers. In each case molecular modelling plays a key role in understanding the observed phenomena.     

Improved approximations for some polymer extension models

We propose approximations for force-extension dependencies for the freely jointed chain (FJC) and worm-like chain (WLC) models as well as for extension-force dependence for the WLC model. Proposed expressions show less than 1 % relative error in the useful range of the corresponding variables. These results can be applied for fitting force-extension curves obtained in molecular force spectroscopy experiments. Particularly, they can be useful for cases where one has geometries of springs in series and/or in parallel where particular combination of expressions should be used for fitting the data. All approximations have been obtained following the same procedure of determining the asymptotes and then reducing the relative error of that expression by adding an appropriate term obtained from fitting its absolute error.     

Numerical simulation of the deformation and breakup of a two-core compound droplet in an axisymmetric T-junction channel

The rheological behaviors of a compound droplet in a confined geometry are of importance in many industrial and natural processes. However, a detailed numerical simulation of the finite deformation and its transition to the breakup of the multi-core compound droplet in an axisymmetric T-junction channel is still lacking. The present study is to fill this gap through the numerical simulations of a two-core compound droplet that deforms and breaks up in this channel configuration. The numerical results are obtained by the axisymmetric front-tracking method. Our new finding is that the compound droplet in the channel can experience the finite deformation or the breakup depending on the flow condition or the configuration of the channel. In the finite deformation mode (i.e. non-breakup mode), the droplet rapidly reaches the maximum deformation before approaching the perpendicular rigid wall. The most deformation occurs with the outer droplet, and the inner droplet closer to the wall is less deformed than the other inner core droplet. In the breakup mode, three breakup patterns are recognized: (i) breakup type I occurring when breaking up only the outer droplet; (ii) breakup type 2 occurring when breaking up only the inner droplets; (iii) breakup type 3 occurring when breaking up both inner and outer droplets. The transition from the non-breakup mode to the breakup mode is available when increasing the Reynolds number Re (from 0.16 to 40.0), the capillary number Ca (from 0.04 to 4.0), the size R_o of the outer droplet and the middle-to-outer fluid viscosity ratio μ₂₁, or decreasing the size R_i of the inner droplets, the radial size C₂ of the channel (normalized by the channel axial size C₁) and the interfacial tension ratio of the inner to the outer droplets. The transition diagrams based on some of these parameters are also proposed to provide a more complete picture of the two-core compound droplet behaving in the axisymmetric T-junction channel..     

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.