The Evaporation of Liquid Droplets in Highly Turbulent Gas Streams
Abstract
Single acetone and heptane droplets were suspended from a hypodermic needle in turbulent airflow, and the Nusselt number was obtained from direct measurements of the droplet diameter and evaporation rate. Acetone was selected because it fluoresces when irradiated with ultraviolet laser radiation while heptane was selected because of its high volatility compared with water, methanol, and ethanol which were used previously. Planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF) measurements were made to obtain qualitative concentration measurements of gaseous acetone in the boundary layer surrounding the droplet. The goal of these measurements was to give insight as to why the evaporation rate is increased by 50 % when the gas phase turbulence is increased from the laminar flow case to the case where the freestream turbulence is 10%. The use of acetone droplets required that the influence of humidity on droplet evaporation rate be considered. Measurements of the turbulence intensity of heated freestream air were also made. Finally, many modifications to improve the experimental apparatus were made during this research project.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 31, 1998
- Accession Number
- ADA365207
Entities
People
- Richard D. Gould
Organizations
- North Carolina State University