Scenarios of drop deformation and breakup in sprays

Abstract: Sprays are used in a wide range of engineering applications, in the food and pharmaceutical industry in order to produce certain materials in the desired powder-form, or in internal combustion engines where liquid fuel is injected and atomized in order to obtain the required air/fuel mixture. The optimization of such processes requires the detailed understanding of the breakup of liquid structures.In this work, we focus on the secondary breakup of medium size liquid drops that are the result of primary breakup at earlier stages of the breakup process, and that are subject to further breakup. The fragmentation of such drops is determined by the competing disruptive (pressure and viscous) and cohesive (surface tension) forces. In order to gain a deeper understanding on the dynamics of the deformation and breakup of such drops, numerical simulations on single drops in uniform and shear flows, and on dual drops in uniform flows are performed employing a Volume of Fluid method. The studied parameter range corresponds to an intermediate Weber number of 20, sufficiently high so that breakup occurs, but much lower than the limit for catastrophic breakup, and a range of Reynolds numbers covering the steady wake regime for liquid drops, Re = 20-200. In order to account for liquids in various applications, a set of different density and viscosity ratios are considered, ρ'=20-80, and μ'=0.5-50 respectively.Single drop simulations show that depending on the Reynolds number and density and viscosity ratios, various breakup modes besides classical bag and shear breakup may be observed at a constant Weber number. The characteristics of the deformation process and the time required for breakup are considerably different for these modes; furthermore, both are significantly altered by velocity gradients in the flow. Dual drop simulations show that the relative position of the two drops, in addition to the Reynolds number and density and viscosity ratios, plays a crucial role in determining the interaction scenario. It is found that the behaviour of drops in tandem may be predicted based on data obtained for single drops: the breakup time and the length of the wake behind the drop. The region where collision is most likely to occur is identified as a two diameters wide and eight diameters long streak, however, weaker forms of interaction may occur up to twenty diameters behind the drop. Results presented in this thesis may be applied to formulate enhanced breakup models regarding the deformation, breakup, and interaction of liquid drops employed in spray simulations.