Numerical study of the primary breakup of a plane liquid sheet with co-flowing air streams

The objective of this study is to model the primary breakup of a plane liquid sheet emerging from an air-blast nozzle. In the present work the interface compression scheme proposed by OpenCFD Ltd. 1] has been used to capture the interface between the liquid and gas. A One-equation subgrid scale (sgs) turbulent energy transport model attributed to Yoshizawa 2] is used for modeling the effects of turbulence. The set up case selected for this study is based on the experiments carried out by Mitra 3]. The 2D simulations performed in this study predict the breakup length of the plane liquid sheet in good agreement with the experimental data. Future work will involve, performing 3D simulations of the plane liquid sheet generated by the air-blast nozzle and performing comparisons of the resulting droplet characteristics with the experimental data. (© 2012 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)