A wind tunnel investigation of the internal circulation and shape of water drops falling at terminal velocity in air

Abstract

AbstractThe internal circulation and the shape of water drops falling at terminal velocity in air of 20°C at sea level pressure, and nearly water saturated, were studied by means of a wind tunnel. Drops with an equivalent radius a0 smaller than 140 üm had within the experimental error no detectable deformation from spherical shape. Drops of sizes 140 μm ≤ a0 ≤ 500 μm were slightly deformed into an oblate spheroid. The deviation of these drops from spherical shape was found to be in fair agreement with that theoretically predicted by Imai (1950) and others. The deformation of drops of sizes 0.5 mm < a0 < 4.5 mm was found to be linearly related to the drop size. Such a linear relationship is predicted by the semi‐empirical calculations of Savic (1953).By means of a tracer technique it was established that water drops falling at terminal velocity in air have a well developed internal circulation. The flow pattern inside a drop was found to be consistent with the flow pattern of the air around the drop and that predicted theoretically by Hadamard (1911) and by Hamielec and Johnson (1962). The surface velocity at the equator of a drop was found to be about 1/100 of the drop's terminal velocity. The experimentally determined internal velocities were compared with those predicted theoretically by McDonald (1954) from boundary layer theory and by Hadamard (1911) based on Stokes flow.