Axisymmetric and non-axisymmetric instability of an electrically charged viscoelastic liquid jet

A linear analysis is performed to investigate the competition between axisymmetric and non-axisymmetric instability of an electrically charged viscoelastic liquid jet. The liquid is assumed to be a dilute polymer solution modeled by the Oldroyd-B constitutive equation. As to its electric properties, the liquid is assumed to be of finite electrical conductivity and is described by the Taylor–Melcher leaky dielectric theory. An analytical dispersion relation is derived and the temporal growth rate is solved numerically. Two viscoelastic liquids, i.e. a PEO aqueous solution and a PIB Boger fluid, are taken as examples to study the effects of electric field and electrical conductivity on jet instability. The result shows that electric field basically destabilizes both the axisymmetric and the non-axisymmetric mode. On the other hand, the effect of electrical conductivity on the modes is quite limited. An energy analysis shows that elasticity enhances both axisymmetric and non-axisymmetric jet instability and its destabilization effect on the axisymmetric mode is more profound. For viscoelastic jets of high Deborah numbers the combined effect of viscosity and elasticity is possibly characterized by an equivalent Reynolds number related only to the viscosity of solvent.     

Temporal analysis of breakup for a power law liquid jet in a swirling gas

The breakup mechanism and instability of a power law liquid jet are investigated in this study. The power law model is used to account for the non-Newtonian behavior of the liquid fluid. A new theoretical model is established to explain the breakup of a power law liquid jet with axisymmetric and asymmetric disturbances, which moves in a swirling gas. The corresponding dispersion relation is derived by a linear approximation, and it is applicable for both shear-thinning and shear-thickening liquid jets. Analysis results are calculated based on the temporal mode. The analysis includes the effects of the generalized Reynolds number, the Weber number, the power law exponent, and the air swirl strength on the breakup of the jet. Results show that the shear-thickening liquid jet is more unstable than its Newtonian and shear-thinning counterparts when the effect of the air swirl is taken into account. The axisymmetric mode can be the dominant mode on the power law jet breakup when the air swirl strength is strong enough, while the non-axisymmetric mode is the domination on the instability of the power liquid jet with a high We and a low Re _n . It is also found that the air swirl is a stabilizing factor on the breakup of the power law liquid jet. Furthermore, the instability characteristics are different for different power law exponents. The amplitude of the power law liquid jet surface on the temporal mode is also discussed under different air swirl strengths.     

Liquid jet in a high Mach number air stream

The instability of circular liquid jet immersed in a coflowing high velocity air stream is studied assuming that the flow of the viscous gas and liquid is irrotational. The basic velocity profiles are uniform and different. The instabilities are driven by Kelvin–Helmholtz instability due to a velocity difference and neckdown due to capillary instability. Capillary instabilities dominate for large Weber numbers. Kelvin–Helmholtz instability dominates for small Weber numbers. The wavelength for the most unstable wave decreases strongly with the Mach number and attains a very small minimum when the Mach number is somewhat larger than one. The peak growth rates are attained for axisymmetric disturbances (n = 0) when the viscosity of the liquid is not too large. The peak growth rates for the first asymmetric mode (n = 1) and the associated wavelength are very close to the n = 0 mode; the peak growth rate for n = 1 modes exceeds n = 0 when the viscosity of the liquid jet is large. The effects of viscosity on the irrotational instabilities are very strong. The analysis predicts that breakup fragments of liquids in high speed air streams may be exceedingly small, especially in the transonic range of Mach numbers.     

The breakup and atomization of a viscous liquid jet

Based on the linear analysis of stability, a dispersion equation is deduced which delineates the evolution of a general 3-dimensional disturbance on the free surface of an incompressible viscous liquid jet. With respect to the spatial growing disturbance mode, the numerical results obtained from the solution of the dispersion equation reveal that a dimensionless parameterJ _e exists. AsJ _e>1, the axisymmetric disturbance mode is most unstable; and whenJ _e<1, the asymmetric disturbances come into being, their growth rate increases with the decrease, ofJ _e, till one of them becomes the most unstable disturbance. The breakup of a low-speed liquid jet results from the developing of axisymmetric disturbances, whose instability is produced by the surface tension; while the atomization of a high-speed liquid jet is brought about by the evolution of nonaxisymmetric disturbance, whose instability is caused by the aerodynamic force on the interface between the jet and the ambient gas. The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China     

气流作用下同轴带电射流的不稳定性研究

通过对气体驱动同轴电流动聚焦的实验模型进行简化,开展了电场力和惯性力共同作用下同轴带电射流的不稳定性理论研究.在流动为无黏、不可压缩、无旋的假设下,建立了三层流体带电射流物理模型并得到了扰动在时间域内发展演化的解析形式色散关系,利用正则模方法求解色散方程发现了流动的不稳定模态,进而分析了主要控制参数对不稳定模态的影响.结果表明,在参考状态下轴对称模态的最不稳定增长率最大,因此轴对称扰动控制整个流场.外层气流速度越高,气体惯性力越大,射流的界面越容易失稳.内外层液-液同轴射流之间的速度差越大,射流越不稳定.表面张力对射流不稳定性起到促进作用.轴向电场对射流不稳定性具有双重影响:当加载电场强度较小时,射流不稳定性被抑制;当施加电压大于某一临界值时,轴向电场会促进射流失稳.临界电压的大小与界面上自由电荷密度和射流表面扰动发展关系密切.这些结果与已有的实验现象吻合,能够对实验的过程控制提供理论指导.     

圆环旋转粘性液膜射流三维不稳定性研究

利用线性稳定性理论进行了射流液体粘性对圆环旋转液膜射流稳定性影响的研究,推导出了三维扰动下具有固体旋涡型速度分布的圆环旋转粘性液膜射流的色散方程;在此基础上进行了类反对称模式与类对称模式下的圆环旋转粘性液膜射流的三维不稳定性分析。研究结果表明,在类反对称模式下,液体粘性超过一定值后,射流最大扰动增长率随液体粘性的增加而迅速减小;轴对称模态的射流特征频率产生一个突降变化;随液体粘性增加,轴对称模态不稳定波数范围减小,非轴对称模态不稳定波数范围呈现出先减小后增大趋势。在类对称模式下,液体粘性对射流最大扰动增长率的影响主要体现在对非轴对称模态的影响上;液体粘性只在粘性较大时才会对非轴对称模态射流特征频率产生一定影响;液体粘性超过一定值后,轴对称模态与非轴对称模态的不稳定波数范围都会快速下降。     

Spatial instability of a viscous liquid sheet

In the present study, the spatial instability for a two‐dimensional viscous liquid sheet, which is thinning with time, has been analysed. The study includes the derivation of a spatial dispersion equation, numerical solutions for the growth rate of sinuous disturbances, and parameter sensitivity studies. For a given wave number, the growth rate of the disturbance is essentially a function of Weber number, Reynolds number, and gas/liquid density ratio. The analysis indicates that the cut‐off wave number of the disturbance becomes larger with an increase in Weber number or gas/liquid density ratio. Thus, the liquid sheet should produce finer drops. When the Reynolds number decreases, the higher viscosity has a greater damping effect on shorter waves than longer waves. This could explain that only large drops and ligaments were observed in past measurements for the disintegration of a very viscous sheet. The spatial instability results of the present study were also compared with the temporal theory. The importance of spatial analysis was found and demonstrated for the cases of low Weber numbers. The temporal theory underestimates growth rates when the Weber number is less than 100. The discrepancy between the two theories increases as the Weber number further decreases. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.     

Absolute inviscid instability of a ring jet with back-flow and swirl

The absolute instability of a ring jet with back-flow and swirl has been investigated on the basis of the inviscid linearized theory for incompressible flow. An axisymmetric disturbance mode is found to be only convectively unstable. The first azimuthal mode can become absolutely unstable, if the ring jet has a back-flow on the jet axis, and an additional swirl can increase the instability. However, for large swirl the absolute instability is suppressed. A ring jet without back-flow becomes absolutely unstable only in the presence of swirl.     

The effect of surfactants on the instability of a rotating liquid jet

It has long been known that the presence of surfactants on the free surface of a liquid jet can create surface tension gradients along the interface. The resulting formation of tangential stresses along the surface lead to Marangoni type flows and greatly affect the resulting dynamics of rupture. In this way surfactants can be used to manipulate the breakup of a liquid jet and control the size of droplets produced. In this paper we investigate the effects of insoluble surfactants on the breakup of rotating liquid jets with applications to industrial prilling. Using a long wavelength approximation we reduce the governing equations into a set of one-dimensional equations. We use an asymptotic theory to find steady solutions and then carry out a linear instability analysis on these solutions. We show that steady state centreline solutions are independent of viscosity to leading order and that the most unstable wavenumber and growth rate of disturbances decrease as the effectiveness of surfactants is increased. We also numerically solve these equations using a finite difference scheme to investigate the effects of changing the initial surfactant concentration and other fluid parameters. Our results show that differences in breakup lengths between rotating surfactant-laden jets and surfactant-free jets increase with the rate of rotation. Moreover, we find that satellite droplet sizes decrease as the rate of rotation is decreased with the effect of surfactants amplifying the reduction in sizes. Furthermore, the presence of surfactants at fixed rotation rates is shown to produce larger main droplets at low disturbance wavenumbers whilst satellite droplets are smaller for moderate disturbance wavenumbers κ≈0.7.     

Fluid dynamics of slender,thin, annular liquid jets

Perturbation methods are used to obtain the one-dimensional, asymptotic equations that govern the fluid dynamics of slender, thin, inviscid, incompressible, axisymmetric, irrotational, annular liquid jets from the Euler equations. It is shown that, depending on the magnitude of the Weber number, two flow regimes are possible: an inertia-dominated one corresponding to large Weber numbers, and a capillary regime for Weber numbers of the order of unity. The steady equations governing these two regimes have analytical solutions for the liquid's axial velocity component and require a numerical integration to determine the jet's mean radius for inertia-dominated jets. The one-dimensional equations derived in this paper are shown to be particular cases of a hydraulic model for annular liquid jets, and this model is used to determine the effects of gravity modulation on the unsteady fluid dynamics of annular liquid jets in the absence of mass injection into the volume enclosed by the jet and mass absorption. It is shown that both the convergence length and the pressure coefficient are periodic functions of time which have the same period as that of the gravity modulation, but undergo large variations as the amplitude, frequency and width of gravitational pulses is varied.     

Theoretical considerations of transition to turbulance in natural convection near a vertical wall

Hydrodynamic stability analysis of an inviscid wall jet shows that instability is possible above a characteristic disturbance wavelength which is proportional to the jet thickness. This scaling is the basis for an argument that transition occurs when the fluctuating time period of the unstable (inviscid) wall jet is of the same order as the viscous diffusion time normal to the jet. The transition must occur when the jet Reynolds number is of the order of 10². Published observations of transition along a heated vertical wall are reviewed in order to test the validity of the proposed scaling argument. Specifically, numerous observations on buoyant jets near isothermal walls, near constant-heat-flux walls, and in enclosures with vertical isothermal walls are shown to support the validity of the transition mechanism proposed     

Experimental studies of interfacial instabilities in multilayer pressure-driven flow of polymeric melts

The interfacial deformation and stability of two-(A-B) as well as three-layer symmetric (A-B-A) and asymmetric (A-B-C) pressure-driven flow of viscoelastic fluids has been investigated. Flow visualization in conjunction with digital image processing has been used to observe and measure the rate of encapsulation and interfacial stability/instability of the flow. Specifically, the encapsulation behavior as well as stability/instability of the interface and the corresponding growth or decay rate of disturbances as a function of various important parameters, namely, number of layers and their arrangement, layer depth ratio, viscosity and elasticity ratio as well as disturbance frequency, have been investigated. Based on these experiments, we have shown that the encapsulation phenomena occurs irrespective of the stability/instability of the interface and in cases when both encapsulation and instability occur simultaneously their coupling leads to highly complex and three-dimensional interfacial wave patterns. Moreover, it has been shown that the simple notion that less viscous fluids encapsulate more viscous fluids is incorrect and depending on the wetting properties of the fluid as well as their first and second normal stresses the reverse could occur. Additionally, in two- and three-layer flows it has been shown that by placing a thin, less viscous layer adjacent to the wall longwave disturbances can be stabilized while short and intermediate wavelength disturbances are stabilized when the more elastic fluid is the majority component. Furthermore, in three-layer flows it has been demonstrated that in the linear instability regime no dynamic interaction between the two interfaces is possible for short and intermediate wavenumber disturbances. However, in the nonlinear stability regime dynamic interactions between interfaces have been observed in this range of disturbance wavenumbers leading to highly chaotic flows. Finally, in the parameter space of this study no subcritical bifurcations were observed while supercritical bifurcations resulting in waves with a pointed front and a gradual tail were observed.     

Large-scale instability of a fine-grained turbulent jet

The initial growth of a large scale perturbation on a fine-grained turbulent jet is studied via linear stability analysis. The turbulent jet is assumed to be homogeneous and isotropic with zero mean shear, and the inviscid stream outside the jet has a uniform velocity profile. The incremental Reynolds stress caused by the large scale perturbation is modeled by a viscoelastic constitutive equation, following the analysis of Crow (1968). It is found that the jet is always unstable to both sinuous and varicose types of perturbation, with the sinuous mode having a larger growth rate. In particular, short waves are always amplified, in contrast to the short wave stabilization at low speed found by Townsend (1966) for a purely elastic jet. The growth rates of these short waves are finite, and are smaller than those for the classical Kelvin-Helmholtz instability of an inviscid jet, but larger than those for the Hooper-Boyd (1983) instability of a viscous jet with continuous velocity profile.     

电场作用下无黏聚焦射流的时间不稳定性研究

基于电场作用下的流动聚焦实验建立了简化的理论模型,开展了带电同轴液气射流的时间不稳定性分析.在无黏假设下,得到了扰动在时间域内发展演化的解析形式的色散关系,分析了主要控制参数对不稳定模态的影响.结果表明,只有轴对称扰动和第一类非轴对称扰动在时间域内是增长的;液气界面的表面张力对轴对称扰动有着双重影响而对非轴对称扰动起抑制作用;外层气体的流速以及密度的增加均能促进射流的失稳.这些结论与实验结果是定性一致的.结果也表明,在不考虑初始界面电荷密度时,单一的轴向电场能抑制射流的失稳.      

Temporal stability of a particle-laden jet

The temporal instability of a particle-laden jet was investigated numerically which took into consideration the parametric effects of jet parameter, B, jet Reynolds number, Re_j, particle mass loading, Z and Stokes number, St. The linear stability theory was used to derive the instability equations of a viscous particle-laden jet flow. The single-phase instability of a top-hat jet was then calculated and compared with the available analytical theories. The numerical results agree well with the analytical results for both the axisymmetric (n = 0) and first azimuthal (n = 1) modes. The results show that the first azimuthal mode disturbance is usually more unstable than that of the axisymmetric mode. But the axisymmetric mode disturbance can be more unstable when Z is high enough (i.e., Z ? 0.1). The higher B and Re_j are, the more unstable the particle-laden jet will be. The existence of particles enhances the flow stability. With the increasing of Z, the jet flow will grow more stable. The inviscid single-phase jet is the most unstable. The wave amplification, c_i first decreases with the increasing of St and then increases afterwards. There exist certain values of St, at which the jet is the most stable.     

圆环旋转黏性液体射流空间不稳定性研究

利用线性稳定性理论, 进行了液体黏性对不同旋转强度下圆环旋转液体射流 空间不稳定性影响的研究. 在推导出的三维扰动下具有固体涡核型旋转速度分布的圆环旋转 黏性液体射流色散方程的基础上, 针对中低速射流, 进行了类反对称模式与类对称模式下圆 环旋转黏性液体射流的空间不稳定性分析. 研究结果表明, 对于旋转强度较大的圆环旋转液 体射流, 液体黏性的增加, 不利于射流的破碎; 随着液体黏性的增加, 射流的特征频率和最 不稳定波数减小. 然而, 对于旋转强度较小的圆环旋转液体射流, 液体黏性的增加, 有利于 射流的破碎; 随着液体黏性的增加, 类反对称模式下射流特征频率先减小后增大, 类对称模 式下射流特征频率增大; 随着液体黏性的增加, 类反对称模式下射流最不稳定波数先减小后 增大, 类对称模式下射流最不稳定波数增大.     

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.     

Instability of a compound liquid jet

In the linear Rayleigh theory [1] the degree of stability of a jet is determined by the viscosity and inertia characteristics of the fluids and the interphase surface tension. The stability of a jet in an infinite medium increases with increase in the viscosity of both the jet and the medium [2, 3]. The presence of two interfaces is responsible for various features of the development of instability in a liquid layer on the surface of a cylinder, and in particular a layer on the inner surface of a cylinder is more unstable than one on the outer surface [4]. In [5, 6] the breakup of a hollow jet in an external medium was investigated. In this paper we examine, in the linear approximation, the stability of a compound jet of nonmiscible liquids with respect to small axisynmetric perturbations of the interfaces. The instability characteristics are given for jets with inviscid and very viscous outer shells. The conditions governing the suppression of rapidly growing instabilities of the inner part (core) of the jet by a viscous shell are determined.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 4, pp. 3–8, July–August, 1985.