Aerodynamic behavior of liquid sprays

An analysis is presented for the effect of entrained gas flows on drop trajectories and spray distributions from liquid atomizing nozzles. In particular, the effect of the pressure (or density) of the environment into which the liquid is sprayed is examined. The contraction of atomized sprays at elevated pressure which has been observed by various workers is explained, and the analysis is substantially confirmed by their data and by new data presented here. Both the data and the theory show that the amount of spray contraction increases with increasing ambient pressure and nozzle pressure drop, and decreases with increasing nozzle diameter and drop size. The theory examines the entrained gas flow around and into a spray and its subsequent effect on the trajectories of the liquid droplets comprising the spray.