Experimental Investigation of Liquid Jet Breakup in a Cross Flow of a Swirling Air Stream

Author(s):  
Tushar Sikroria ◽  
Abhijit Kushari ◽  
Saadat Syed ◽  
Jeffery A. Lovett

This paper presents the results of an experimental investigation of liquid jet breakup in a cross flow of air under the influence of swirl (swirl numbers 0 and 0.2) at a fixed air flow Mach number 0.12 (typical gas turbine conditions). The experiments have been conducted for various liquid to air momentum flux ratios (q) in the range of 1 to 25. High speed (@ 500 fps) images of the jet breakup process are captured and those images are processed using matlab to obtain the variation of breakup length and penetration height with momentum flux ratio. Using the high speed images, an attempt has been made to understand the physics of the jet breakup process by identification of breakup modes—bag breakup, column breakup, shear breakup, and surface breakup. The results show unique breakup and penetration behavior which departs from the continuous correlations typically used. Furthermore, the images show a substantial spatial fluctuation of the emerging jet resulting in a wavy nature related to effects of instability waves. The results with 15 deg swirl show reduced breakup length and penetration related to the nonuniform distribution of velocity that offers enhanced fuel atomization in swirling fuel nozzles.

Author(s):  
Tushar Sikroria ◽  
Abhijit Kushari ◽  
Saadat Syed ◽  
Jeffery A. Lovett

This paper presents the results of an experimental investigation of liquid jet breakup in a cross-flow of air under the influence of swirl (swirl numbers 0 and 0.2) at a fixed air flow Mach No. 0.12 (typical gas turbine conditions). The experiments have been conducted for various liquid to air momentum flux ratios (q) in the range of 1 to 25. High speed (@ 500 fps) images of the jet breakup process are captured and those images are processed using MATLAB to obtain the variation of breakup length and penetration height with momentum flux ratio. Using the high speed images, an attempt has been made to understand the physics of the jet breakup process by identification of breakup modes — bag breakup, column breakup, shear breakup and surface breakup. The results show unique breakup and penetration behavior which departs from the continuous correlations typically used. Furthermore, the images show a substantial spatial fluctuation of the emerging jet resulting in a wavy nature related to effects of instability waves. The results with 15° swirl show reduced breakup length and penetration related to the non-uniform distribution of velocity that offers enhanced fuel atomization in swirling fuel nozzles.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 211-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abhijeet Kumar ◽  
Srikrishna Sahu

The aim of this paper is to experimentally characterize the liquid jet breakup unsteadiness in a coaxial air-blast atomizer. The current research focuses on the measurement of the fluctuations of the jet breakup length and the flapping instability of the liquid jet, which contribute to the downstream fluctuations of the spray characteristics. The optical connectivity technique was used to measure the instantaneous breakup length of the water jet. Also, time resolved shadowgraph images of the primary jet breakup process were captured by high-speed imaging to characterize the jet instabilities at different axial locations from the atomizer exit. Experiments were performed for a wide range of air-to-liquid momentum flux ratio ( M) and aerodynamic Weber number ( Weg) corresponding to membrane- and/or fiber breakup mode of the jet disintegration process. The mean jet breakup length was found to vary inversely with M through a power law relation in agreement with the literature, while the breakup length fluctuations were found to first decrease and then increase with M. In order to capture the unsteady dynamics of the jet breakup process, the proper orthogonal decomposition analysis of the optical connectivity images was performed. The jet flapping and the fluctuations of the jet breakup length were identified as the second and the third spatial proper orthogonal decomposition modes, respectively, for all operating conditions of the atomizer. The amplitude and the frequency of the instabilities were measured by temporal tracking of the liquid–air interface on the shadowgraph images. The disturbance close to the injector exit corresponds to the Kelvin–Helmholtz instability, while close to the jet breakup point the jet exhibits the flapping instability, which is characterized by lateral oscillation of the jet about the atomizer axis. The influence of the liquid jet Reynolds number and momentum flux ratio on the KH and the flapping instabilities are examined.


Author(s):  
Tushar Sikroria ◽  
Abhijit Kushari

Abstract This paper presents the experimental analysis of the impact of swirl number of cross-flowing air stream on liquid jet spray trajectory at a fixed air flow velocity of 42 m/s with the corresponding Mach number of 0.12. The experiments were conducted for 4 different swirl numbers (0, 0.2, 0.42 and 0.73) using swirl vanes at air inlet having angles of 0°, 15°, 30° and 45° respectively. Liquid to air momentum flux ratio (q) was varied from 5 to 25. High speed (@ 500 fps) images of the spray were captured and those images were processed using MATLAB to obtain the path of the spray at various momentum flux ratios. The results show interesting trends for the spray trajectory and the jet spread in swirling air flow. High swirling flows not only lead to spray with lower radial penetration due to sharp bending and disintegration of liquid jet, but also result in spray with high jet spread and spray area. Based on the results, correlations for the spray path have been proposed which incorporates the effects of the swirl number of the air flow.


Author(s):  
Muthuselvan Govindaraj ◽  
Muralidhara Halebidu Suryanarayanarao ◽  
Prateekkumar Kotegar ◽  
Sonali Gupta ◽  
Sanjay Shankar ◽  
...  

The main objective of this computational analysis is to investigate the effect of increase in Weber number at constant momentum flux ratio on the primary breakup process and deformation of kerosene jet in cross stream air flow. Unsteady computational analysis with VOF approach is carried out to simulate the two phase flow at three different cross flow Weber number conditions (150, 350 and 400) at constant momentum flux ratio of 17. Since the results of VOF technique is highly sensitive to the size and distribution of grid, grid optimization process is carried out, with both structured and unstructured forms of the grid. Since the structured grid with number of elements 17,96,181 displayed better matching with experimental results of upper trajectory of kerosene jet; this grid is used to investigate the effect of turbulence model and Weber number on the windward trajectory of kerosene jet in cross flow air stream. Initially to evaluate the results of computational analysis; simulations are carried out with larger computational domain (with number of elements 17,96,181). Windward trajectory of computational analysis is compared with experimental results of upper trajectory predicted using image processing technique and reasonable overall matching is observed. To investigate the primary breakup process and deformation of liquid jet at three different increasing Weber number conditions, simulations are carried out with smaller computational domain with higher mesh density with number of elements 33,96,146. The computational technique used in the present analysis exactly captures the modes of breakup observed from experimental results at different Weber number operating conditions. To characterize the deformation of liquid jet at different Weber number conditions; near-field trajectory, cross stream dimension and wave length of liquid jet are quantified at different instants of time. With increase in Weber number, decrease in penetration of liquid jet along transverse direction and more bending of liquid jet along flow direction is observed. From the velocity profile along transverse direction of three different conditions, stronger shearing of liquid film is observed in higher Weber number conditions.


Author(s):  
Yosef Rezaei ◽  
Mehran Tadjfar

An experimental investigation was performed to study the physics of liquid jets injected into a low subsonic crossflow. The jets are issued from elliptical and circular injectors with equivalent exit area. The liquid jet was visualized using shadowgraph technique and a high speed camera was used to record the instantaneous status of the jet. The liquid / air momentum flux ratio and air Weber number were varied to examine their effects on different parameters of the flow like liquid jet column trajectory, breakup point and breakup regimes. The major axis of the elliptical nozzle was aligned parallel and perpendicular to the air crossflow direction. Two different breakup modes were observed, column breakup and bag breakup. Based on the obtained results some characteristics of injected liquid jets into the air crossflow such as penetration depth and the trajectory of liquid jet were affected by changing the nozzle exit shape.


Author(s):  
Anand T.N.C ◽  
Senthilkumar P ◽  
Shamit Bakshi

Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) using Urea-Water Solution (UWS) as an ammonia precursor is consideredas one of the best choices to meet the current stringent emission norms for reduction of NOX in diesel engines. UWS sprayed in the engine exhaust line forms ammonia, and this ammonia reduces NOX into nitrogen. The NOX reduction efficiency depends on the mixing and evaporation behavior of the UWS spray in the hot exhaust gas. Spray characteristics decide the evaporation rate and hence the NOX reduction efficiency. The spray structure is closely related to the breakup point and breakup mode of the jet. Hence, in this study, breakup length and breakup mode were investigated by injecting UWS (32.5 % by weight) through a nozzle in a hot air cross flow. A CCD camera and pulsed Nd:Yag laser were used for capturing the images. Experiments were conducted with varying nozzle size (150, 250 and 400 micron), injection pressure (0.5 to 3 bar), temperature (32 °C,150 °C and 200 °C) and air flow rate. The effect of operating parameters (nozzle size, injection pressure, air temperature and velocity) in terms of dimensionless numbers (Weber number and momentum flux ratio) on jet breakup mode and jet breakup length was studied. It was observed that the breakup length for UWS was close to that of water. The jet breakup length increases with momentum flux ratio since a jet having a higher momentum is able to penetrate a larger distance in the cross flow. Increasing the air temperature increases the velocity of the cross flow and hence reduces the breakup length. A correlation for jet breakup length was developed. The effect of inclusion of Weber number in the breakup length correlation, in addition to the momentum flux ratio, was studied. Visual observation shows that droplet sizes obtained from the plain orifice injector without preheating is large. Preheatingthe UWS before injection is recommended to reduce the droplet size.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4995/ILASS2017.2017.4982


Author(s):  
Venkat S. Iyengar ◽  
Sathiyamoorthy Kumarasamy ◽  
Srinivas Jangam ◽  
Manjunath Pulumathi

Cross flow fuel injection is a widely used approach for injecting liquid fuel in gas turbine combustors and afterburners due to the higher penetration and rapid mixing of fuel and the cross flowing airstream. Because of the very limited residence time available in these combustors it is essential to ensure that smaller drop sizes are generated within a short axial distance from the injector in order to promote effective mixing. This requirement calls for detailed investigations into spray characteristics of different injector configurations in a cross-flow environment for identifying promising configurations. The drop size characteristics of a liquid jet issuing from a forward angled injector into a cross-flow of air were investigated experimentally at conditions relevant to gas turbine afterburners. A rig was designed and fabricated to investigate the injection of liquid jet in subsonic cross-flow with a rectangular test section of cross section measuring 50 mm by 70 mm. Experiments were done with a 10 degree forward angled 0.8 mm diameter plain orifice nozzle which was flush mounted on the bottom plate of test section. Laser diffraction using Malvern Spraytec particle analyzer was used to measure drops size and distributions in the near field of the spray. Measurements were performed at a distance of 70 mm from the injector at various locations along the height of the spray plume for a reasonable range of liquid flow rates as in practical devices. The sprays were characterized using the non dimensional parameters such as the Weber number and the momentum flux ratio and drop sizes were measured at three locations along the height of the spray from the bottom wall. The momentum flux ratio was varied from 5 to 25. Results indicate that with increase in momentum flux ratio the SMD reduced at the specific locations and an higher overall SMD was observed as one goes from the bottom to the top of the spray plume. This was accompanied by a narrowing of the drop size distribution.


2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (6) ◽  
pp. 911-924 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yue Jiang ◽  
Hong Li ◽  
Chao Chen ◽  
Lin Hua ◽  
Daming Zhang

HighlightsThe hydraulic performance of the impact sprinkler with circular and non-circular nozzles were measured.A High-Speed Photography (HSP) technique was employed to extract the jet breakup process of the impact sprinkler.Two index equations of jet characteristic lengths and equivalent diameters of non-circular nozzles were fitted. Abstract. An experiment was carried out to investigate the hydraulic performance of an impact sprinkler by using circular and non-circular nozzles. A High-Speed Photography (HSP) technique was employed to extract the breakup process and flow behavior of low-intermediate pressure water jets issued from the different types of orifices. These orifices were selected by the principle of equal flowrate with the same pressure. Moreover, two characteristic lengths: the jet breakup length and the initial amplitude of surface wave were measured. It was found that the sprinkler with circular nozzles produced the largest radius of throw followed by square nozzles and regular triangular nozzles when the cone angle of nozzle and pressure were unchanged, while the sprinkler with regular triangular nozzle had the best variation trend of water distribution and combination uniformity coefficient. Regular triangular jets exhibited a higher degree in breakup and the shortest breakup length compared with the square jets and the circular jets. The initial amplitudes of surface waves of regular triangular jets were larger than the square jets and the circular jets with the same cone angle. Two index equations of jet characteristic lengths and equivalent diameters of both circular and non-circular orifices were fitted with a relative error of less than 10%, which means the fitting formulas were accurate. Keywords: Breakup length, Fitting formula, Hydraulic performance, Initial amplitude, Non-circular jets.


2014 ◽  
Vol 1070-1072 ◽  
pp. 1945-1950
Author(s):  
Pei Feng Liu ◽  
Yong Huang ◽  
Zhi Lin Liu ◽  
Lei Sun

An experiment was conducted to investigate bag breakup process of round liquid jets in crossflow. The objective of this study is to research pulsation law. Specifically, this study measures the onset position of bag, the breakup position of bag, the breakup position of the jet. High-speed camera was used to observe the formation and breakup of bags. The diameter of the nozzle used in the experiment was 0.5mm, 0.8mm, 1mm. The test liquid was tap water. Wea number covers the range of 6~30, and liquid-to-air momentum flux ratio varied from 22 to 211. Present results indicate that in the direction perpendicular to the gas flow, the dimensionless pulsating amount of the onset point of bags (yonset/d) is linear to q, while the dimensionless pulsating amount of breakup point of bags (ybag/d) and the dimensionless pulsating amount of breakup point of the jet (yjet/d) is linear to ln (q). The dimensionless pulsating amount of these points in the direction of gas flow is irregular.


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