Drop Breakup by Airstream Impact

Abstract

The effects of an impulsively applied airstream on the breakup of a water droplet are examined analytically and experimentally. Scaling laws for droplet breakup are derived in which the time to diminish a droplet to a critical size is related to the impact pressure, q2. The drop breakup relation is obtained, tb/d = k/q2 to the 1/2 power, where the value of the constant k is to be determined from experiment. This relationship is valid when the value of the Weber number is much larger than one. A shocktube experiment is described in which detailed photographs of drop motion and breakup are obtained with a high speed framing camera. Drop displacement and breakup data are obtained over a range of shock front Mach number from 1.85 to 2.84; simultaneously impact pressure is varied from 2.67 to 28.4 psi. The value of the drop breakup constant is determined to be, K = 23.9 ms-psi to the 1/2 power/in.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 1968
Accession Number
AD0666525

Entities

People

  • James E. Nicholson

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Altitude
  • Blunt Bodies
  • Boundary Layer
  • Dynamic Pressure
  • Equations
  • Free Stream
  • Mach Number
  • Measurement
  • Pressure Distribution
  • Rocket Sleds
  • Scaling Laws
  • Sea Level
  • Shock Tubes
  • Shock Waves
  • Surface Roughness
  • Turbulent Mixing
  • Wind Tunnels

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Aerosol Science/Aerosol Physics
  • Combustion Dynamics and Shock Wave Physics.
  • Fluid Dynamics.