Droplet size and velocity distributions in a spray from a pressure swirl atomizer: Application of maximum entropy formalism

Author(s):  
D Mondal ◽  
A Datta ◽  
A Sarkar

The present work has attempted a unification of the empirical spray parameters for the pressure swirl atomizers with the maximum entropy formalism principle for the predictions of both size and velocity distributions in a spray. The information entropy is maximized under suitable constraint conditions to evaluate a number-based droplet size and velocity joint distribution parameter. The constraint equations have been defined to include the spray parameters, such as the Sauter mean diameter, spray cone angle and liquid film thickness, to consider their influence on the distribution. A comparison of the predicted results using the present theory is made with the experimental data available in the literature and good agreement is achieved. The effects of the atomizer input conditions, such as injection pressure, ambient pressure and the properties of atomizing liquids, on the size and velocity distributions are studied using the present model. A calculation of the efficiency of the atomization process using the size and velocity distribution functions is also made to study the effect of operating conditions on the performance of atomization.

Author(s):  
Kristen Bishop ◽  
William Allan

The effects of fuel nozzle condition on the temperature distributions experienced by the nozzle guide vanes have been investigated using an optical patternator. Average spray cone angle, symmetry, and fuel streaks were quantified. An ambient pressure and temperature combustion chamber test rig was used to capture exit temperature distributions and to determine the pattern factor. The rig tests matched representative engine operating conditions by matching Mach number, equivalence ratio, and fuel droplet size. It was observed that very small deviations (± 10° in spray cone angle) from a nominal distribution in the fuel nozzle spray pattern correlated to increases in pattern factor, apparently due to a degradation of mixing processes, which created larger regions of very high temperature core flow and smaller regions of cooler temperatures within the combustion chamber exit plane. The spray cone angle had the most measureable influence while the effects of spray roundness and streak intensity had slightly less influence. Comparisons were made with published studies conducted on the combustion chamber geometry, and recommendations were made for fuel nozzle inspections.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kiran Kumar ◽  
Vasudev Chaudhari ◽  
Srikrishna Sahu ◽  
Ravindra G. Devi

Abstract Fouling in compressor blades due to dirt deposition is a major issue in land-based gas turbines as it impedes the compressor performance and degrades the overall engine efficiency. The online water washing approach is an effective alternate for early-stage compressor blade cleaning and to optimize the time span between offline washing and peak availability. In such case, typically a series of flat-fan nozzles are used at the engine bell mouth to inject water sprays into the inflowing air. However, optimizing the injector operating conditions is not a straightforward task mainly due to the tradeoff between blade cleaning effectiveness and material erosion. In this context, the knowledge on spray characteristics prior to blade impingement play a vital role, and the experimental spray characterization is crucial not only to understand the basic process but also to validate numerical models and simulations. The present paper investigates spray characteristics in a single flat-fan nozzle operated in the presence of a coflowing air within a wind-tunnel. A parametric investigation is carried out using different air flow velocity in the tunnel and inlet water temperature, while the liquid flow rate was maintained constant. The spray cone angle and liquid breakup length are measured using back-lit photography. The high-speed shadowgraphy technique is used for capturing the droplet images downstream of the injector exit. The images are processed following depth-of-filed correction to measure droplet size distribution. Droplet velocity is measured by the particle tracking velocimetry (PTV) technique. As both droplet size and velocity are known, the cross-stream evolution of local droplet mass and momentum flux are obtained at different axial locations which form the basis for studying the effectiveness of the blade cleaning process due to droplet impingement on a coupon coated with foulant of known mass.


1997 ◽  
Vol 119 (3) ◽  
pp. 512-518 ◽  
Author(s):  
Q. P. Zheng ◽  
A. K. Jasuja ◽  
A. H. Lefebvre

A single-velocity-component phase Doppler particle analyzer is used to survey and measure local variations in drop-size distributions and drop velocities in the nearnozzle region of a practical, contraswirling, prefilming airblast atomizer. The technique of laser sheet imaging is used to obtain global patterns of the spray. All measurements are taken with a constant pressure drop across the atomizer of 5 percent, at ambient air pressures of 1, 6, and 12 bar. The liquid employed is aviation kerosine at flow rates up to 75 g/s. The results show that increasing the air pressure from 1 to 12 bar at a constant air/fuel ratio causes the initial spray cone angle to widen from 70 to 105 deg. Farther downstream the spray volume remains largely unaffected by variations in atomizer operating conditions. However, the radial distribution of fuel within the spray volume is such that increases in fuel flow rate cause a larger proportion of fuel to be contained in the outer regions of the spray. The effect of ambient pressure on the overall Sauter mean diameter is small. This is attributed to the fact that the rapid disintegration of the fuel sheet produced by the contraswirling air streams ensures that the atomization process is dominated by the “prompt” mechanism. For this mode of liquid breakup, theory predicts that mean drop sizes are independent of air pressure.


Author(s):  
Ajrouche Hugo ◽  
Chiboub Ibrahim ◽  
Nilaphai Ob ◽  
Dozias Sébastien ◽  
Moreau Bruno ◽  
...  

Quantifying liquid mass distribution data in the dense near nozzle area to develop and optimize diesel spray byoptical diagnostic is challenging. Optical methods, while providing valuable information, have intrinsic limitations due to the strong scattering of visible light at gas-liquid boundaries. Because of the high density of the droplets near the nozzle, most optical methods are ineffective in this area and prevent the acquisition of reliable quantitative data. X-ray diagnostics offer a solution to this issue, since the main interaction between the fuel and the X-rays is absorption, rather than scattering, thus X-ray technique offers an appealing alternative to optical techniques for studying fuel sprays. Over the last decade, x-ray radiography experiments have demonstrated the ability to perform quantitative measurements in complex sprays. In the present work, an X-ray technique based on X-ray absorption has been conducted to perform measurements in dodecane fuel spray injected from a single-hole nozzle at high injection pressure and high temperature. The working fluid has been doped with DPX 9 containing a Cerium additive, which acts as a contrast agent. The first step of this work was to address the effect of this dopant, which increases the sensitivity of X-ray diagnostics due its strong photon absorption, on the behavior and the physical characteristics of n-dodecane spray. Comparisons of the diffused back illumination images acquired from n- dodecane spray with and without DPX 9 under similar operating conditions show several significant differences. The current data show clearly that the liquid penetration length is different when DPX 9 is mixed with dodecane. To address this problem, the dodecane was doped with a several quantities of DPX containing 25% ± 0.5 of Cerium. Experiments show that 1.25% of Ce doesn’t affect the behaviour of spray. Radiography and density measurements at ambient pressure and 60 bars are presented. Spray cone angle around 5° is obtained. The obtained data shows that the result is a compromise between the concentration of dopant for which the physical characteristics of thespray do not change and the visualization of the jet by X-ray for this concentration.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4995/ILASS2017.2017.4705


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Zhengyan Guo ◽  
Yi Jin ◽  
Kai Zhang ◽  
Kanghong Yao ◽  
Yunbiao Wang ◽  
...  

Pressure swirl atomizers are widely used in gas turbine combustor; this paper is aimed at researching the effect of low ambient pressure (0.1 MPa to 0.01 MPa, lower than an atmosphere) on the spray cone angle of pressure swirl atomizer. The spray angle is captured by high-speed photography; then, an image post program is used to process the spray angle magnitude. A mathematical model of a single droplet’s movement and trajectory based on force analysis is proposed to validate the spray angle variation. The maximum variation of the spray cone angle, which is observed when fuel supply pressure drop through the atomizer is 1 MPa as the ambient pressure decreases from 0.1 MPa to 0.01 MPa, is found to be 23.9%. The experimental results show that the spray cone angle is expected to increase with the ambient pressure decrease; meanwhile, mathematical results agree well with this trend.


2020 ◽  
Vol 197 ◽  
pp. 06002
Author(s):  
Simone Sparacino ◽  
Fabio Berni ◽  
Matteo Riccardi ◽  
Andrea Cavicchi ◽  
Lucio Postrioti

In the optimization of GDI engines, fuel injection plays a crucial role since it can affect the combustion process and, thus, fuel efficiency and pollutant emissions. The challenging task is to obtain the required fuel distribution and atomization inside the combustion chamber over a wide range of engine operating conditions. To achieve such goals, flash-boiling can be exploited. Flash-boiling is a phenomenon occurring when fuel temperature exceeds saturation temperature or, similarly, when ambient pressure is lower than saturation one. Under these conditions, which can occur inside the injector or directly in the combustion chamber, the fuel undergoes extremely accelerated breakup and quickly evaporates. The proposed manuscript shows the application of an alternative flashboiling model, recently implemented by Siemens-PLM in STAR-CD V.2019.1, to be applied in 3D-CFD Lagrangian simulations of GDI sprays. Results are validated against experimental data, provided by the SprayLAB of the University of Perugia, on a single-hole research injector. The new flash-boiling model consists of three main parts: an atomization model able to compute droplet initial conditions and the overall spray cone angle; an evaporation model and, finally, a droplet break-up model; the last two models are designed to simulate all the physical events occurring when droplets are injected into the combustion chamber. As for the investigated operating condition, vessel pressure and temperature are 40 kPa and 293K, respectively; as for the fuel (n-Heptane) temperature, it ranges from 303.15 K to 393.15 K, on equal injection pressure (10 MPa). The numerical-experimental comparison is carried out in terms of liquid penetration, imaging, and droplet sizing.


Author(s):  
Q. P. Zheng ◽  
A. K. Jasuja ◽  
A. H. Lefebvre

A single-velocity-component Phase Doppler Particle Analyzer is used to survey and measure local variations in drop-size distributions and drop velocities in the near-nozzle region of a practical, contra-swirling, prefilming airblast atomizer. The technique of Laser Sheet Imaging is used to obtain global patterns of the spray. All measurements are taken with a constant pressure drop across the atomizer of 5 percent, at ambient air pressures of 1, 6 and 12 bar. The liquid employed is aviation kerosine at flow rates up to 75 g/s. The results show that increasing the air pressure from 1 to 12 bar at a constant air/fuel ratio causes the initial spray cone angle to widen from 85° to 105°. Further downstream the spray volume remains largely unaffected by variations in atomizer operating conditions. However, the radial distribution of fuel within the spray volume is such that increases in fuel flow rate cause a larger proportion of fuel to be contained in the outer regions of the spray. The effect of ambient pressure on the overall Sauter mean diameter is small. This is attributed to the fact that the rapid disintegration of the fuel sheet produced by the contra-swirling air streams ensures that the atomization process is dominated by the ‘prompt’ mechanism. For this mode of liquid breakup, theory predicts that mean drop sizes are independent of air pressure.


Author(s):  
Shaji S. Manipurath

The development of higher thermal stability fuels and the development of onboard fuel deoxygenation systems may permit the preheating of fuel up to about 755 K before the onset of pyrolysis. At a sufficiently high fuel temperature for a given combustion chamber pressure, the flash vaporization of liquid or supercritical state fuel can ensue upon injection into the chamber. The performance of standard aviation turbine engine fuel nozzles, designed for mechanically breaking up liquid sprays, may thus be significantly altered by the employment of severely preheated fuel. An evaluation of heated and superheated Jet A-1 sprays from a pressure-swirl atomizer was implemented in a purpose-built test facility. Laser sheet imaging of the spray yielded simultaneous axial cross-sectional maps of Mie-scatter and fluorescence signals. In addition, particle image velocimetry was also used to measure the spray droplet velocity-field. The results indicated that increasing the fuel’s dimensionless level of superheat ΔT* from −1.8 to 0.6 yielded significant changes in the spray structure; specifically, finer droplet sizes, a more uniform dropsize distribution across the spray, increased spray cone angle till about ΔT* = −0.8 followed by a contraction thereafter, marginally increased spray penetration, and significantly higher localised near nozzle tip droplet velocities. The measurements supported the hypothesis that the initial hollow-cone spray structure evolves to a near solid-cone structure with a central vapour core as the fuel is superheated.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tao Zhang ◽  
Bo Dong ◽  
Xun Zhou ◽  
Linan Guan ◽  
Weizhong Li ◽  
...  

Partial replacement of kerosene by ethanol in a gas turbine is regarded as a good way to improve the spray quality and reduce the fossil energy consumption. The present work is aimed at studying the spray characteristics of kerosene-ethanol blends discharging from a pressure-swirl nozzle. The spray cone angle, discharge coefficient, breakup length, and velocity distribution are obtained by particle image velocimetry, while droplet size is acquired by particle/droplet imaging analysis. Kerosene, E10 (10% ethanol, 90% kerosene), E20 (20% ethanol, 80% kerosene), and E30 (30% ethanol, 70% kerosene) have been considered under the injection pressure of 0.1–1 MPa. The results show that as injection pressure is increased, the discharge coefficient and breakup length decrease, while the spray cone angle, drop size, and spray velocity increase. Meanwhile, the drop size decreases and the spray velocity increases with ethanol concentration when the injection pressure is lower than 0.8 MPa. However, the spray characteristics are not affected obviously by the ethanol concentration when the injection pressure exceeds 0.8 MPa. A relation to breakup length for kerosene-ethanol blends is obtained. The findings demonstrate that the adding of ethanol into kerosene can promote atomization performance.


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