Dynamic characteristics of pulsed supersonic fuel sprays

This paper describes the dynamic characteristics of pulsed, supersonic liquid fuel sprays or jets injected into ambient air. Simple, single hole nozzles were employed with the nozzle sac geometries being varied. Different fuel types, diesel fuel, bio-diesel, kerosene, and gasoline were used to determine the effects of fuel properties on the spray characteristics. A vertical two-stage light gas gun was employed as a projectile launcher to provide a high velocity impact to produce the liquid jet. The injection pressure was around 0.88–1.24 GPa in all cases. The pulsed, supersonic fuel sprays were visualized by using a high-speed video camera and shadowgraph method. The spray tip penetration and velocity attenuation and other characteristics were examined and are described here. An instantaneous spray tip velocity of 1,542 m/s (Mach number 4.52) was obtained. However, this spray tip velocity can be sustained for only a very short period (a few microseconds). It then attenuates very quickly. The phenomenon of multiple high frequency spray pulses generated by a single shot impact and the changed in the angle of the shock structure during the spray flight, which had already been observed in previous studies, is again noted. Multiple shock waves from the conical nozzle spray were also clearly captured.      

Comparison-speed liquid jets

The performance of a small high-speed liquid jet apparatus is described. Water jets with velocities from 200 to 700 m/s were obtained by firing a deformable lead slug from an air rifle into a stainless steel nozzle containing water sealed with a rubber diaphragm. Nozzle devices using the impact extrusion (IE) and cumulation (CU) methods were designed to generate the jets. The effect of the nozzle diameter and the downstream distance on the jet velocity is examined. The injection sequences are visualized using both shadowgraphy and schlieren photography. The difference between the IE and CU methods of jet generation is found.     

Supersonic liquid jets: Their generation and shock wave characteristics

The generation of high-speed liquid (water and diesel fuel) jets in the supersonic range using a vertical single-stage powder gun is described. The effect of projectile velocity and mass on the jet velocity is investigated experimentally. Jet exit velocities for a set of nozzle inner profiles (e.g. straight cone with different cone angles, exponential, hyperbolic etc.) are compared. The optimum condition to achieve the maximum jet velocity and hence better atomization and mixing is then determined. The visual images of supersonic diesel fuel jets (velocity about 2000 m/s) were obtained by the shadowgraph method. This provides better understanding of each stage of the generation of the jets and makes the study of their characteristics and the potential for auto-ignition possible. In the experiments, a pressure relief section has been used to minimize the compressed air wave ahead of the projectile. To clarify the processes inside the section, additional experiments have been performed with the use of the shadowgraph method, showing the projectile travelling inside and leaving the pressure relief section at a velocity of about 1100 m/s. Received 23 January 2001 / Accepted 2 July 2001     

Characteristics of impact-driven high-speed liquid jets in water

This paper describes a preliminary investigation of the characteristics of high-speed water jets injected into water from an orifice. The high-speed jets were generated by the impact of a projectile launched by a horizontal single-stage powder gun and submerged in a water test chamber. The ensuing impact-driven high-speed water jets in the water were visualized by the shadowgraph technique, and the images were recorded by a high-speed digital video camera. The processes following such jet injection into water, the jet-induced shock waves, shock wave propagation, the bubble behavior, bubble collapse-induced rebound shock waves and bubble cloud re-generation were observed. Peak over-pressures of about 24 and 35 GPa measured by a Polyvinylidence difluoride (PVDF) piezoelectric film pressure sensor were generated by the jet impingement and the bubble impingement, respectively. The peak over-pressure was found to decrease exponentially as the stand-off distance between the PVDF pressure sensor and the nozzle exit increases.     

High speed jet formation by impact acceleration method

This paper describes the generation of high-speed liquid jets by the impact acceleration method using a vertical two-stage light gas gun specially designed and constructed for this project at the Interdisciplinary Shock Wave Research Laboratory, Institute of Fluid Science, Tohoku University. Results of pressure measurements and double exposure holographic interferometric visualization and high speed video-recording of shadow graph images of waves propagating in a conically shaped container of liquid are included. In the experiments, an optical fiber pressure transducer of 0.1 mm in diameter and resonant frequency of 100 MHz was used for precise pressure measurements of waves in the container at 300 m/s projectile impacts. To verify the contribution of longitudinal and transversal waves created in metal containers, we used a 10.6 mm × 10.6 mm container of water with thick acrylic observation windows and quantitatively visualized waves by using double exposure holographic interferometry. We found that: (1) longitudinal and transversal waves did exist in the metal parts of the container and also in the acrylic observation windows; (2) before the nozzle flow started, these waves and their reflected waves coalesced with the main impact generated shock wave; (3) the primary jet was driven by pressures of 12.4 GPa caused by the 300 m/s projectile impingement; (4) successive shock reflections inside the container of liquid drove intermittent multiple liquid jets; (5) the contribution of released longitudinal and transversal waves to multiple jet formation is marginal; and (6) negative pressures detected with the optical fiber pressure transducer are attributable to impact flash and have no physical significance.      

A gas jet superposition model for CFD modeling of group-hole nozzle sprays

In the present study, a jet superposition modeling approach is explored to model group-hole nozzle sprays, in which multiple spray jets interact with each other. An equation to estimate the merged jet velocity from each of the individual jets was derived based on momentum conservation for equivalent gas jets. Diverging and converging group-hole nozzles were also considered. The model was implemented as a sub-grid-scale submodel in a Lagrangian Drop–Eulerian Gas CFD model for spray predictions. Spray tip penetration predicted using the present superposition model was validated against experimental results for parallel, diverging and converging group-hole nozzles as a function of the angle between the two holes at various injection and ambient pressures. The results show that spray tip penetration decreases as the group hole diverging or converging angle increases. However, the spray penetration of the converging group-hole nozzle arrangement is more sensitive to the angle between the two holes compared to diverging nozzle because the radial momentum component is converted to axial momentum during the jet–jet impingement process in the converging group-hole nozzle case. The modeling results also indicate that for converging group-hole nozzles the merged sprays become ellipsoidal in cross-section far downstream of the nozzle exit with larger converging angles, indicating increased air entrainment.     

自然超空泡与尾喷流相互作用的数值模拟

认识带尾喷流和自然超空泡的水下高速航行体流体动力特性并发展其预报与控制方法仍是水动力学领域极具挑战性的课题．本研究采用CFD方法对尾喷流和自然超空泡之间的相互作用进行了数值研究．针对发动机欠膨胀超音速喷流,采用现有实验结果验证了基于两方程湍流模型的二维轴对称流动数值模型的可靠性．尾喷流在空气和蒸汽环境中流动的数值计算结果表明,由于蒸汽环境中背压较低,欠膨胀尾喷流无法及时形成压缩波,使得蒸汽环境中尾喷流的过膨胀区和气相扩散区的体积比空气中大;尾喷流很难形成规则的激波格栅,波系结构相对简单．针对携尾喷流的平头航行体超空泡流状态的数值模拟结果表明,尾喷流注入超空泡后迅速充满航行体周围的空腔区域;尾喷流与超空泡尾迹区域形成的回射流相互作用最终导致超空泡断裂,断裂过程中伴随着燃气泡的下泄现象;受空泡壁面约束,尾喷流难以在狭窄的超空泡空腔内完全膨胀,尾喷流的激波波系结构有显著的变化：在喷嘴附近受到压缩,在远离喷嘴区域受到超空泡水汽掺混的破坏;空泡内压强基本维持在饱和蒸汽压附近,没有显著增加．     

Multiple pulsed hypersonic liquid diesel fuel jetsdriven by projectile impact

Further studies on high-speed liquid diesel fuel jets injected into ambient air conditions have been carried out. Projectile impact has been used as the driving mechanism. A vertical two-stage light gas gun was used as a launcher to provide the high-speed impact. This paper describes the experimental technique and visualization methods that provided a rapid series of jet images in the one shot. A high-speed video camera (10⁶ fps) and shadowgraph optical system were used to obtain visualization. Very interesting and unique phenomena have been discovered and confirmed in this study. These are that multiple high frequency jet pulses are generated within the duration of a single shot impact. The associated multiple jet shock waves have been clearly captured. This characteristic consistently occurs with the smaller conical angle, straight cone nozzles but not with those with a very wide cone angle or curved nozzle profile. An instantaneous jet tip velocity of 2680 m/s (Mach number of 7.86) was the maximum obtained with the 40 nozzle. However, this jet tip velocity can only be sustained for a few microseconds as attenuation is very rapid.Received: 13 December 2003, Accepted: 11 April 2004, Published online: 11 February 2005[/PUBLISHED]K. Pianthong: Correspondence to:      

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.     

Visualization of high-speed gas jets and their airblast sprays of cross-injected liquid

A planar and instantaneous visualization study of high-speed gas jets and their airblast sprays was performed to qualitatively examine the different atomization performances of different gas nozzles. For the visualization of high-speed gas jets (with no liquid injected), Nd:YAG pulsed laser sheets imaged the clustered vapor molecules in the Rayleigh range (d?λ), condensed from the natural humidity during the isentropic gas expansion through a nozzle. This method visualized both underexpanded sonic gas jets from a converging nozzle (SN-Type) and overexpanded supersonic gas jets from a converging-diverging nozzle (CD-Type). When liquid is cross-injected, the same laser sheet images the spray droplets of relatively large sizes (d?λ). The present visualization results show that the SN-Type nozzle develops a wider spray than the CD-Type nozzle, quite probably because the SN-Type nozzle has a wider gas jet (in the absence of liquid) than the CD-Type. Also, the wider spray of the SN-Type nozzle lowers the probability of droplet coalescence and generates finer sprays compared to the CD-Type nozzle. These visualization results qualitatively agree with the previous quantitative finding of the different atomization characteristics of the two types of nozzles (Park et al. 1996).     

Analytical and experimental investigations of the pulsed air–water jet

This paper describes a new way of generating pulsed air–water jet by entraining and mixing air into the cavity of a pulsed water jet nozzle. Based on the theory of hydro-acoustics and fluid dynamics, a theoretical model which describes the frequency characteristic of the pulsed air–water jet is outlined aimed at gaining a better understanding of this nozzle for generating pulses. The calculated result indicates that as the air hold-up increases, the jet oscillation frequency has an abrupt decrease firstly, and then reaches a minimum gradually at α (air hold-up)=0.5, finally it gets increased slightly. Furthermore, a vibration test was conducted to validate the present theoretical result. By this way, the jet oscillation frequency can be obtained by analyzing the vibration acceleration of the equal strength beam affected by the jet impinging. Thereby, it is found that the experimental result shows similar trend with the prediction of the present model. Also, the relationship between vibration acceleration and cavity length for the pulsed water jet follows a similar tendency in accord with the pulsed air–water jet, i.e. there exists a maximum for each curve and the maximum occurs at the ratio of L/d₁ (the ratio of cavity length and upstream nozzle diameter) =2.5 and 2.2, respectively. In addition, experimental results on specimens impinged by the pulsed water jet and pulsed air–water jet show that the erosion depth increases slightly with air addition within a certain range of cavity length. Further, this behavior is very close to the vibration test results. As for erosion volume, the air entrained into the cavity significantly affects the material removal rate.     

Generation of hypersonic liquid fuel jets accompanying self-combustion

Aerodynamic behavior of pulsed hypersonic light oil jets injected at 2 km/s and 3 km/s is presented. Auto-ignition and combustion of the fuel during the injection process were visualized. The combustion around the disintegrating jet was enhanced by liquid atomization created by the very high injection pressure as well as the interfacial instability of the hypersonic jet. The jets were injected into air at low pressure and also that premixed with helium and air. It was found that the combustion was reduced in both cases despite the higher jet speed and the increased gas pressure. Received 5 November 1998 / Accepted 24 February 1999     

Dynamics and Breakup of Pulse Microjets of Polymeric Liquids

The possibilities of controlling the dynamics and breakup of pulsed low-viscosity liquid microjets by means of small amounts of polymeric additives are considered. Significant differences between the breakup of pulse jets of Newtonian and viscoelastic polymeric liquids are recorded by means of high-speed photography. In flight a standard Newtonian fluid jet fragments into many secondary droplets. Depending on the molecular parameters, for a polymeric liquid three variants of the behavior of the jet in flight are possible: (1) the jet tail fragments into several secondary droplets; (2) the entire tail flows into the leading drop without loss and a single drop is formed; (3) the drop ejected from the nozzle returns to the nozzle under the action of elastic internal stresses in the tail. Criteria for the transition from one regime of jet motion to another are proposed.__________Translated from Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Academii Nauk, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 3, 2005, pp. 45–63.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Bazilevskii, Meyer, and Rozhkov.     

Experimental investigation of liquid jet injection into Mach 6 hypersonic crossflow

The injection of a liquid jet into a crossing Mach 6 air flow is investigated. Experiments were conducted on a sharp leading edge flat plate with flush mounted injectors. Water jets were introduced through different nozzle shapes at relevant jet-to-air momentum–flux ratios. Sufficient temporal resolution to capture small scale effects was obtained by high-speed recording, while directional illumination allowed variation in field of view. Shock pattern and flow topology were visualized by Schlieren-technique. Correlations are proposed on relating water jet penetration height and lateral extension with the injection ratio and orifice diameter for circular injector jets. Penetration height and lateral extension are compared for different injector shapes at relevant jet-to-air momentum–flux ratios showing that penetration height and lateral extension decrease and increase, respectively, with injector’s aspect ratio. Probability density function analysis has shown that the mixing of the jet with the crossflow is completed at a distance of x/d _j  ~ 40, independent of the momentum–flux ratio. Mean velocity profiles related with the liquid jet have been extracted by means of an ensemble correlation PIV algorithm. Finally, frequency analyses of the jet breakup and fluctuating shock pattern are performed using a Fast Fourier algorithm and characteristic Strouhal numbers of St = 0.18 for the liquid jet breakup and of St = 0.011 for the separation shock fluctuation are obtained.     

Shock-induced collapse of a cylindrical air cavity in water: a Free-Lagrange simulation

A Free-Lagrange CFD code is used to simulate the collapse of a cylindrical air cavity in water by a 1.9 GPa incident shock. The Lagrangian treatment allows the air/water interface to be tracked throughout the interaction. The incident shock is partially transmitted into the cavity, within which it experiences multiple reflections. The upstream cavity wall involutes to form a high-speed jet which, on impact with the far cavity wall, produces an intense blast wave. Heating of the gas within the cavity is highly non-isentropic, and is dominated by shock heating. The predicted final gas temperature is of order 12000 K, although the modelling assumptions used here lead to over-prediction of temperature during the later stages of collapse. Received 14 September 1999 / Accepted 28 June 2000     

Experimental analysis of high-speed helium jet flow using four-dimensional digital speckle tomography

A high-speed and initial helium jet flow has been analyzed by a developed four-dimensional digital speckle tomography. Multiple high-speed cameras have been used to capture movements of speckles in multiple angles of view simultaneously because a shape of a nozzle for the jet flow is asymmetric and the initial jet flow is fast and unsteady. The speckle movements between no flow and helium jet flow from the asymmetric nozzle controlled by a solenoid valve have been obtained by a cross-correlation tracking method so that those distances can be transferred to deflection angles of laser rays for density gradients. The four-dimensional density fields for the high-speed helium jet flow have been reconstructed from the deflection angles by a developed real-time tomography method.     

Unsteady effects in mechanically-excited turbulent plane jets

Two methods of mechanically exciting a plane turbulent free jet are described; periodic perturbatin of the nozzle exit velocity, and forced oscillation of a small vane located in the het potential core. Hot-wire measurements obtained by conditional sampling techniques indicated that the flow fields of the two jets are substantially different although they have the same Strouhal number of 0.0032. While the mean flow development of the pulsed jet can be described adequately by a quasi-steady model, the vane-excited jet exhibits unsteady effects which depart significantly from quasi-steady approximations such as increased entrainment, amplification of excitation and non-linear effects in the form of the presence of high harmonics. The constancy of momentum flux has been examined in both the steady and unsteady jets     

Opposed bubbly jets at different impact angles: Jet structure and bubble properties

The structure of two colliding water jets containing small gas bubbles is studied experimentally. The effects of the separation distance between jets, as well as the orientation angle, on the spatial distribution of bubbles have been considered. Results on the global structure of the final jet and bubble properties have been obtained using a high-speed video camera, and measurements of the positions of coalescence events are presented. Jets are introduced through inclined pipes (with a diameter of 0.7 mm) into a large water tank to avoid wall effects. Inclination angle has been changed from 0° to 45° with respect to the horizontal, resulting in a 0° up to 90° impact angle between jets. Generation of bubbles is controlled by a T-junction device where a regular slug-flow is created prior to injection. Bubble sizes have been measured, and a mean diameter of around 1 mm has been obtained using high values of the liquid flow rate. In the studied range of separation distances between the bubbly jets, a more homogeneous dispersion of bubbles is created as the distance between jets is decreased and the momentum flux of each jet is increased. Higher numbers of coalescences are observed when using smaller distance between jets, and the obtained measurements revealed that the number of bubble coalescence events is reduced significantly using high values of liquid flow rates.     

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.