Electrohydrodynamic instability of a dielectric compressible liquid sheet streaming into an ambient stationary compressible gas

The effect of compressibility of fluids on the linear electrohydrodynamic instability of a dielectric liquid sheet issued from a nozzle into an ambient dielectric stationary gas in the presence of a horizontal electric field is investigated. It is found that increasing the Mach number from subsonic to transonic causes the maximum growth rate and the dominant wavenumber of the disturbances to increase, and the increase is higher in the presence of the electric field. Liquid compressibility has been found to have a minimal effect on instability. At constant wavenumber and electric field values, the growth rate of disturbances increases as the gas Mach number tends to 1, and then begins to decrease with further increase in the gas Mach number. At small values of wavenumber, antisymmetrical disturbances grow faster than symmetrical ones, while the growth rate of both types of disturbances approach each other at large wavenumbers, which increases by increasing the electric field values. At small Weber numbers, antisymmetrical disturbances exhibit a higher maximum growth rate and a lower dominant wavenumber than symmetrical disturbances. However, the maximum growth rate and dominant wavenumber of the two types of disturbances are almost identical when both Weber number and electric field values become large. An increase in the gas to liquid density ratio enhances the instability, and this effect is enhanced for high electric field values. Surface tension and electric fields always oppose and increase the development of instability, respectively; and they have opposite effects for long wavelengths and high Weber numbers.     

Flutter of a cylindrical shell subjected to an internal supersonic gas flow

The piston theory formula for the excess aerodynamic pressure is used in the majority of works devoted to the flutter of shells. The problem on the flutter of a cylindrical shell subjected to an internal supersonic gas flow is solved in a new formulation     

Heat transfer to non-newtonian laminar falling liquid films with smooth wave free gas—liquid interface

The present paper investigates analytically the problem of heat transfer to a non-Newtonian laminar falling liquid film flowing along an inclined wall for the thermally developing and thermally developed regions. In the developing region of the temperature profile, the Nusselt number decreases monotonically until the thermal boundary layer touches the interface. But immediately after this point, the liquid film thickness decreases as well as the temperature difference in the film. The influence of parameters such as α (i.e. Fr/Re_mod ratio), γ (i.e. modified form of ?μ), modified Prandtl number and the flow behaviour index “n’ on heat transfer results is also presented.     

Comparison of analytical techniques employed to reduce the data obtained for steel samples subjected to high ambient pressure and axial tension

This report reexamines some of the experimental data collected by P.W. Bridgman and published in his book ‘Studies in Large Plastic Flow and Fracture’. Of special concern, for the present considerations, is the problem of the flow and resultant ‘necking’ which occurs when a cylindrical bar of steel is subjected to high ambient pressures and axial tension. Bridgman developed an equation which corrected the average stress across the minimum cross-section of the ‘necked’ portion of the sample for the effects of plastic stress concentration. A subsequent analysis by one of the present authors offered another relation for the stress concentration which provided a more complete theoretical analysis of the problem. This report documents the statistical evidence that the new procedure provides a superior correlation to Bridgman's data than Bridgman's original analysis.     

Normal stress difference in liquid lubricants sheared under high pressure

Although normal stress differences in liquids have conventionally been associated with polymers, aspects of rheological behavior in lubricated concentrated contacts suggest that normal stress difference may be significant in even low molecular weight liquids sheared under high pressure and high shear stress. A torsional flow rheogoniometer was constructed for use at high (300 MPa) pressure. Four typical liquid lubricants were investigated, including one polymer/mineral oil solution. Shear stress and N ₂-N ₂ are reported as functions of shear rate. The effect of pressure variation is reported for two liquids. Results are compared with predictive techniques and a molecular dynamics simulation. Simple low molecular weight lubricant base oils can generate measurable and significant normal stress differences when sheared at high shear stress.     

Nonlinear instability of an annular liquid sheet exposed to gas flow

Nonlinear instability and breakup of an annular liquid sheet has been modeled in this paper. The liquid sheet is considered to move axially and is exposed to co-flowing inner and outer gas streams. Also, the effect of outer gas swirl on sheet breakup has been studied. In the developed model a perturbation expansion method has been used with the initial magnitude of the disturbance as the perturbation parameter. This is a comprehensive model in that other geometries of planar sheet and a coaxial jet can be obtained as limiting cases of very large inner radius and inner radius equal to zero, respectively. In this temporal analysis, the effect of liquid Weber number, initial disturbance amplitude, inner gas-to-liquid velocity ratio, outer gas-to-liquid velocity ratio and outer gas swirl strength on the breakup time is investigated. The model is validated by comparison with earlier analytical studies for the limiting case of a planar sheet as well as with experimental data of sheet breakup length available in literature. It is shown that the linear theory cannot predict breakup of an annular sheet and the developed nonlinear model is necessary to accurately determine the breakup length. In the limiting case of a coaxial jet, results show that gas swirl destabilizes the jet, makes helical modes dominant compared to the axisymmetric mode and decreases jet breakup length. These results contradict earlier linear analyses and agree with experimental observations. For an annular sheet, it is found that gas flow hastens the sheet breakup process and shorter breakup lengths are obtained by increasing the inner and the outer gas velocity. Axially moving inner gas stream is more effective in disintegrating the annular sheet compared to axially moving outer gas stream. When both gas streams are moving axially, the liquid sheet breakup is quicker compared to that with any one gas stream. In the absence of outer gas swirl, the axisymmetric mode is the dominant instability mode. However, when outer gas flow has a swirl component higher helical modes become dominant. With increasing outer gas swirl strength, the maximum disturbance growth rate increases and the most unstable circumferential wave number increases resulting in a highly asymmetric sheet breakup with shorter breakup lengths and thinner ligaments.     

Wavy motion of liquid films flowing concurrently with a gas stream

An experimental study was made of the wavy motion of a water film flowing concurrently with a turbulent flow of air. The measurements of the parameters of the film were made by an optical method for the absorption of light in a colored film. The sources of monochromatic radiation were heliumneon lasers. Near the curve of neutral stability, the data of the experiment were compared with the results of a calculation in accordance with the linear theory. A plane-parallel flow of a film loses its stability somewhat earlier than is predicted by the linear theory; the divergence decreases with an increase in the thickness of the film. Far from the curve of neutral stability, the simultaneous existence of two groups of waves was observed.     

Atomization of liquids by disintegrating thin liquid films using gas jets

Liquid atomization is useful in many applications, such as engineering, science, pharmaceutics, medicine, forensics and others. In the present research, an innovative methodology and a new device for atomization of liquids into mists of micron and submicron droplets have been developed. The new liquid-atomization method exploits the physical phenomenon of fragmentation of thin liquid films into fine micron and submicron droplets by gas jets. For several tested prototypes, the direct observations using a high-speed visualization technique have demonstrated that bubbles were generated within a liquid and their shells have been subsequently destroyed by applying a mechanical impulse (pressure of a compressed air) once the bubbles came over the liquid surface. The main characteristics of the generated tap water mists have been experimentally measured by means of the laser diffraction technique under various conditions for each prototype. One of the prototype devices allowed obtaining mists containing 90–99% of droplets smaller than 1 µm, with the minimum arithmetic and Sauter mean droplet diameters of 1.48 µm and 2.66 µm, and the 2.64 ml/min of droplet flow rate for 3.5 bar manometer pressure of atomizing air. The gas to liquid mass ratios (GLR) in the new device are depending on the atomizing tube length and the number of perforated orifices in the tube: more the tube length, hence more the number of perforated orifices, and therefore more liquid droplets will form for the same gas flow rate. The measured GLR values related to 1 m length of the utilized atomizing tube were in the range of 0.65–1.06, and for the specifically utilized atomizing tube of 72 mm length were among 9.07–14.67. The results of this study demonstrate that the developed method of generation of very fine droplet mists has many advantages over the existing techniques and can be perspective for many practical applications.     

Influence of capillary pressure on the evaporation of thin liquid films

A model is presented that considers the influence of capillary pressure on the evaporation of a liquid film on a vertical that plate. The governing equations are derived and numerically integrated with a step-variable Runge-Kutta method. The numerical results are compared with the analytical solution from Nusselt's film condensation theory. The deviation from the Nusselt film theory become very prominent when the liquid film becomes thin enough. This can be attributed to the fact that the Nusselt film theory does not consider the influence of capillary pressure on the shape of the liquid film.Es wird ein Modell vorgestellt, das den Einfluß des Kapillardrucks auf die Verdampfung eines dünnen Flüssigkeitsfilms berücksichtigt, der entlang einer senkrechten Platte herabrieselt. Die maßgebenden Gleichungen werden abgeleitet und numerisch mit einem Runge-Kutta-Verfahren veränderlicher Schrittweite integriert. Die numerischen Ergebnisse werden mit denen der Nusseltschen Filmtheorie verglichen. Dabei ergeben sich beträchtliche Abweichungen von dieser in den Bereichen, in denen der Flüssigkeitsfilm sehr dünn wird. Dies ist darauf zurückzuführen, daß die Nusseltsche Filmtheorie den Einfluß des Kapillardrucks auf die Filmkontur nicht berücksichtigt.     

Estimating gas holdup via pressure difference measurements in a cocurrent bubble column

Estimating gas holdup via pressure difference measurements is a simple and low-cost non-invasive technique to study gas holdup in bubble columns. It is usually used in a manner where the wall shear stress effect is neglected, termed Method II in this paper. In cocurrent bubble columns, when the liquid velocity is high or the fluid is highly viscous, wall shear stress may be significant and Method II may result in substantial error. Directly including the wall shear stress term in the determination of gas holdup (Method I) requires knowledge of two-phase wall shear stress models and usually requires the solution of non-linear equations. A new gas holdup estimation method (Method III) via differential pressure measurements for cocurrent bubble columns is proposed in this paper. This method considers the wall shear stress influences on gas holdup values without calculating the wall shear stress. A detailed analysis shows that Method III always results in a smaller gas holdup error than Method II, and in many cases, the error is significantly smaller than that of Method II. The applicability of Method III in measuring gas holdup in a cocurrent air–water–fiber bubble column is examined. Analysis based on experimental data shows that with Method III, accurate gas holdup measurements can be obtained, while measurement error is significant when Method II is used for some operational conditions.     

Modelling and experimental investigation of horizontal buoyant gas jets injected into stagnant uniform ambient liquid

In this article, an experimental and theoretical study on the buoyant non-condensable gas jet that is injected horizontally into a high-density liquid ambient at different initial conditions is performed. Direct and instantaneous global measurements of the interface were performed using a high-speed photography. The position and motion of the entire gas jet were captured by a high-velocity camera and the images were processed, averaged and analyzed to extract the jet parameters and interface position. In the mathematical model, the rate of entrainment is assumed to be a function of the jet centerline velocity, the ratio of the mean jet and the ambient densities, while the entrainment coefficient depends on the local Froude number at the jet region. An interfacial shear stress acting at the interface between the jet flow and the water ambient in the opposed direction to the main jet momentum flux is considered. The results showed that the model is able to accurately predict the jet parameters: trajectory, spread, jet angles and penetration lengths as well as the jet regimes. An overall good agreement was obtained between the simulation and experimental results over a large range of Froude numbers and jet diameters. The developed model has proven to be an adequate tool to predict the different jet parameters.     

Computational analysis of convective instabilities in a liquid layer subjected to an inclined gradient of temperature

A 3D numerical study of convective instabilities in a horizontal liquid layer (silicone oil with a Prandtl number Pr = 102) with an upper free surface is presented. The liquid layer is subjected to an inclined gradient of temperature. The influence of both gravity and thermocapillary forces on the formation of convective patterns is studied for different values of the liquid layer depth. Numerical results are found to be in good agreement with experimental data of other authors.     

Longitudinal flow characteristics of vertically falling liquid films without concurrent gas flow

Flow characteristics of liquid films vertically falling along the outer wall of a circular tube without concurrent gas flow are experimentally studied, and attention is given to the longitudinally developing liquid film flow in the flow direction. Flow measurements are carried out by the methods of needle contact and electric capacity, and the obtained data are statistically processed.There exists a definite difference in flow characteristics such as wave motion patterns, film thicknesses, critical Reynolds number, and so on, depending strongly on the longitudinal distance in the flow direction as well as the liquid film Reynolds number. Measured probability distributions of interfacial waves can be well expressed by the functions of probability distribution statistically well-known as normal, logarithmic normal and gamma distributions. In terms of these functions, interfacial wave patterns are definitely classified over the whole experimental flow regime. As a rule, interfacial wave motion proceeds vigorously with increases of the longitudinal distance and Reynolds number; however, there exists a flow condition that wave fluctuation never grows up but declines regardless of an increase of Reynolds number.     

Assessment of gas and liquid velocities induced by an impacting liquid drop

A two-phase flow model using the boundary element method was applied to investigate the physics of a liquid drop impacting onto a solid, dry plate. Xu et al. showed that air pressure plays an important role in splashing: as air pressure was reduced, splashing of an ethanol drop with a Weber number of 838 was suppressed. This remarkable observation provided the motivation for the current modeling effort. We numerically investigate how air pressure affects the behavior of an impacting drop. Surveying both inside and outside the impacting drop, velocities of both the liquid and gas are computed. Simulations show that gas speed, as it is displaced by the falling drop, is more than three times higher than the incoming drop speed. Air entrainment induced by the displaced gas seems to be an important contributor to corona formation, which always precedes any instability, fingering, or splashing of the liquid. To describe drop-impact phenomena, the maximum spreading diameter of the drop and the topology of the impacting fluid are reported as functions of Weber number and gas density.     

Transitional intermittency in boundary layers subjected to pressure gradient

Summary Results are reported from an extensive series of experiments on boundary layers in which the location of pressure gradient and transition onset could be varied almost independently, by judicious use of tunnel wall liners and transition-fixing devices. The experiments show that the transition zone is sensitive to the pressure gradient especially near onset, and can be significantly asymmetric; no universal similarity appears valid in general. Observed intermittency distributions cannot be explained on the basis of the hypothesis, often made, that the spot propagates at speeds proportional to the local free-stream velocity but is otherwise unaffected by the pressure gradient.Now with Indian Space Research OrganizationNow with Indian Air Force