Computational Investigation of Atomization

Abstract

The secondary breakup of liquid fuel drops was studied by numerical simulations. The Navier-Stokes equations were solved by a finite difference/front tracking technique that included inertia, viscous forces, and surface tension at the deformable boundary between the fuel and the air. The breakup of drops accelerated impulsively was studied by axisymmetric simulations for two different density ratios (1.15 and 10). The low density ratio results can be used for other density ratios by simple rescaling of time. It was shown that the drops break up in different modes, depending on the relative strength of surface tension versus inertia. The modes are similar to those found experimentally for drops in air at atmospheric pressure and breakup maps constructed from the computational results show similar transitions. There are, however, some differences. Bag breakup is, for example, not found for impulsively accelerated drops in the low density ratio limit. Computations of the breakup of cold drops in hot ambient show a rapid increase in heat transfer, and the drops often reach the ambient temperature before breakup is completed.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 31, 2000
Accession Number
ADA377695

Entities

People

  • Gretar Tryggvason

Organizations

  • University of Michigan

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Axisymmetric
  • Barometric Pressure
  • Boundaries
  • Boundary Layer
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics
  • Energy Transfer
  • Equations
  • Fluid Dynamics
  • Fluid Flow
  • Heat Transfer
  • Inviscid Flow
  • Low Density
  • Multiphase Flow
  • Navier Stokes Equations
  • Physical Properties
  • Simulations
  • Surface Tension

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Combustion and Flow Dynamics.
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
  • Explosive Engineering.