INFLUENCE OF SOME GEOMETRICAL PARAMETERS ON THE CHARACTERISTICS OF PREFILMING TWIN-FLUID ATOMIZATION
Geometries are considered to have a great influence on the spray characteristics of atomizers. In the present study, we studied a prefilming twin-fluid atomizer patented by Sadatomi and Kawahara (2012), in which liquid atomization is implemented by supplying compressed air alone into an internal mixing chamber, and water is automatically sucked by the negative pressure induced by an orifice. In the experiments, we studied spray characteristics influenced by the geometrical parameters, such as orifices in different opening area ratios and different shapes, porous rings with different porous diameters, and different atomizer sizes. Higher spray performance can be obtained by a small sized atomizer with a circular orifice in opening area ratio of 0.429 and a porous fiber ring with porosity of 25 μm. The present results provide a significant guidance for practical applications with different requirements of spray characteristics.