Velocity measurements of individual droplets in liquid-liquid Taylor flows in circular capillaries

This study is focused on the effect of droplet length on droplet velocity in liquid-liquid Taylor flows for microfluidic applications. An experimental set up was designed to measure droplet velocity over a wide range of droplet lengths and flow velocities while also varying viscosity ratio. Five different fluid combinations were examined by employing AR20, FC40, HFE7500 and water. Results indicate the complexity of predicting droplet velocity in such flow regimes and also show a strong influence of viscosity ratio and Bond number.

Influence of the Droplet Velocity on the Attenuation of Overpressures in a Water Mist

Mist generator is a basic element of systems designed to protect from explosions. It is responsible for forming a suppression barrier between the place of explosion and the zone to be protected. The effectiveness of the system is determined by the capacity of the mist to suppress blast overpressure and impulse. The attenuation capacity, on its turn, depends on mist properties, such as droplet size, water concentration in mist and droplet velocity. The paper examines droplet velocity influence on overpressure and impulse attenuation in mist when the properties of the latter are in the following ranges: droplet size - 15-345 μm; droplet velocity - 5.5-35 m/s; shock wave velocity – 515-718 m/s, droplet impact angle - 900. The influence of drop velocity on blast attenuation has been assessed according to overpressure and impulse reduction factors.

Water droplet can mitigate dust from hydrophobized micro-post array surfaces

Water droplet rolling motion over the hydrophobized and optically transparent micro-post array surfaces is examined towards dust removal pertinent to self-cleaning applications. Micro-post arrays are replicated over the optically transparent polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) surfaces. The influence of micro-post array spacing on droplet rolling dynamics is explored for clean and dusty surfaces. The droplet motions over clean and dusty micro-post array surfaces are monitored and quantified. Flow inside the rolling droplet is simulated adopting the experimental conditions. Findings reveal that micro-post gap spacing significantly influences droplet velocity on clean and dusty hydrophobized surfaces. Air trapped within the micro-post gaps acts like a cushion reducing the three-phase contact line and interfacial contact area of the rolling droplet. This gives rise to increased droplet velocity over the micro-post array surface. Droplet kinetic energy dissipation remains large for plain and micro-post arrays with small gap spacings. A Rolling droplet can pick up dust particles from micro-post array gaps; however, few dust residues are observed for large gap spacings. Nevertheless, dust residues are small in quantity over hydrophobized micro-post array surfaces.

Study on driving waveform design process for multi-nozzle piezoelectric printhead in material-jetting 3D printing

Purpose Material-jetting (MJ) three-dimensional (3D) printing processes are competitive due to their printing resolution and printing speed. Driving waveform design of piezoelectric printhead in MJ would affect droplet formation and performance, but there are very limited studies on it besides patents and know-hows by commercial manufacturers. Therefore, in this research, the waveform design process to efficiently attain suitable parameters for a multi-nozzle piezoelectric printhead was studied. Therefore, this research aims to study the waveform design process to efficiently attain suitable parameters for a multi-nozzle piezoelectric printhead. Design/methodology/approach Ricoh’s Gen4L printhead was adopted. A high-speed camera captured pictures of jetted droplets and droplet velocity was calculated. The waveforms included single-, double- and triple-pulse trapezoidal patterns. The effects of parameters were investigated and the suitable ones were determined based on the avoidance of satellite drops and preference of higher droplet velocity. Findings In a single-pulse waveform, an increase of fill time (Tf) decreased the droplet velocity. The maximum velocity happened at the same pulse width, the sum of fill time and hold time (Tf + Th). In double- and triple-pulse, a voltage difference (Vd) above zero in the holding stage was adopted except the last pulse to avoid satellite drops. Suitable parameters for the selected resin were obtained and the time-saving design process was established. Research limitations/implications Based on the effects of parameters and observed data trends, suggested procedures to determine suitable parameters were proposed with fewer experiments. Practical implications This study has verified the feasibility of suggested design procedures on another resin. The required number of trials was reduced significantly. Originality/value This research investigated the process of driving waveform design for the multi-nozzle piezoelectric printhead. The suggested procedures of finding suitable waveform parameters can reduce experimental trials and will be applicable to other MJ 3D printers when new materials are introduced.

Numerical Simulation and Experiment of Atomization Field of Fan-Shaped Atomization Nozzle for Plant Protection UAV

Background: There are drift and volatilization of the droplets produced by the plant protection Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) under the influence of external wind speed and its flight speed. Objective: It studied the atomization characteristics of its fan-shaped atomizing nozzle under different inlet pressures and inner cavity diameters. Methods: For the start, the Realizable k-ε turbulence model, DPM discrete phase model and TAB breakup model are used to make a numerical simulation of the spray process of the nozzle. Then, the SIMPLE algorithm is used to obtain the droplet size distribution diagram of the nozzle atomization field. At last, the related test methods are used to study its atomization performance, and the changes of atomization angle and droplet velocity under different inlet pressures and inner cavity diameters and the distribution of droplet size are discussed. Results: The research results show that under the same inner cavity diameter, as the inlet pressure increases, the spray cone angle of the nozzle and the droplet velocity at the same distance from the nozzle increase. As the distance from the nozzle increases, the droplet velocity decreases gradually, the droplet size distribution moves to the direction of small diameter, and the droplets in the anti-drift droplet size area increase. Under the same inlet pressure, as the diameter of the inner cavity increases, the spray cone angle first increases and then decreases, and the droplet velocity at the same distance from the nozzle increases. As the distance from the nozzle increases, the droplet velocity decreases gradually, the droplet size distribution moves to the direction of large diameter, and the large size droplets increase, which cannot meet the anti-drift volatilization effect. Conclusion: Under the parameter set in this study, when the inlet pressure is 0.6MPa and the inner cavity diameter is 2mm, the atomization result is the best.

Experimental Study of the Effect of the Expansion Segment Geometry on the Atomization of a Plain-Jet Airblast Atomizer

In this paper, the idea of adding an expansion segment over traditional airblast atomizer is proposed to improve the spray performance. According to the systematic experiments, the Sauter mean diameter, the droplet size distribution, and the droplet axial mean velocity were obtained to evaluate the spray performance. The correlations between spray performance and four geometrical parameters of the expansion segment which include the length, the angle, the throat area, and position of liquid jet are considered. The atomizer operates at atmospheric pressure and temperature, and the air liquid ratio range is from 0.48 to 2.85. The data of the results were measured by Phase Doppler Particle Analyzer. The results show that more uniform droplet size distribution can be achieved with the addition of expansion segment, and the droplet size distribution factor q of the case adding the expansion segment is 52.8% bigger than that of the case with no expansion segment. q increases as the length and angle of expansion segment increase. The Sauter mean diameter can be reduced by either reducing the length or angle of expansion segment. As for droplet velocity, it is determined that the droplet velocity increases along the radial direction, which is noteworthy because opposite trend is reported for traditional plain-jet atomizers. With an increase of the length, angle, and throat area of the expansion segment, the droplet axial velocity decays.

Study on the Atomization Characteristics of Flat Fan Nozzles for Pesticide Application at Low Pressures

Spraying is the most widely used means of pesticide application for pest control in agriculture and forestry. The atomization characteristics of the nozzles are directly related to the spray drift, rebound, and deposition. Previous research studies have mainly focused on the change pattern of atomization characteristics. Mathematical descriptions of the atomization characteristics of flat fan nozzles are rare, and pesticide application theories are also insufficient. Atomization characteristics mainly include droplet size and velocity. This study analyzes the influence of the spray parameters (spray angle, pressure, and equivalent orifice diameter of nozzles) and the spatial position in the flow field. To obtain the atomization characteristics of flat fan nozzles, the phase Doppler particle analyzer (PDPA) was selected for the accurate measurement of the droplet sizes and velocities at distances 0.30–0.60 m, using low spray pressures (0.15–0.35 MPa). The droplet size and velocity models were then established and validated. The results revealed that the average absolute error of the droplet size model was 23.74 µm and the average relative error was 8.23%. The average absolute and relative errors of the droplet velocity model were 0.37 m/s and 7.86%, respectively. At a constant spray pressure and angle, there was a positive correlation between the droplet size and the equivalent orifice diameter of the nozzles. The test also verified that the spray angle and distance had a negative correlation with the droplet velocity at a given pressure. The spray distance had no effect on the spray axial droplet size at constant spray pressure. In addition, the spray angle greatly affected the droplet velocity along the X-axis; similarly, the spray parameters, especially spray angle, greatly affected the droplet size.

Numerical Simulation and Experimental Study on Flow Field in a Swirl Nozzle

In order to study the internal flow characteristics and external droplet velocity distribution characteristics of the swirl nozzle, the following methods were used: numerical simulations were used to study the internal flow characteristics of a swirl nozzle and phase Doppler particle velocimetry was used to determine the corresponding external droplet velocity distribution under medium and low pressure conditions. The distributions of pressure and water velocity inside the nozzle were obtained. Meanwhile, the velocities of droplets outside the nozzle in different sections were discussed. The results show that the flow rate in the swirl nozzle increases with the increase in inlet pressure, and the local pressure in the region decreases because of the excessive velocity at the internal outlet section of the swirl nozzle, resulting in cavitation. The experimental results show that under an external flow field, the minimum droplet velocity occurs in the axial direction; starting from the axis, the velocity first increases and then decreases along the radial direction. Swirling motion inside the nozzle and velocity variations in the external flow field occur under medium and low pressure conditions. The relationship between the inlet pressure and the distributions of water droplets’ velocities was established, which provides a reference for the research and development of the swirl nozzle.