scholarly journals Liquid jet breakup unsteadiness in a coaxial air-blast atomizer

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 ◽  
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.


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):  
Anirudh Asuri Mukundan ◽  
Thibaut Menard ◽  
Marcus Herrmann ◽  
Jorge Cesar Brandle de Motta ◽  
Alain Berlemont

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


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