Calculated Characteristics of Droplet Size and Velocity Distributions in liquid sprays

Abstract

AbstractPredictions of the droplet size and velocity distributions in sprays under isothermal conditions are reported. The calculations are based on the maximum entropy formalism, complying with the conservation laws of liquid mass, momentum and energy. This theoretical approach considers only the macroscopic quantities about the atomization processes, without resorting to the details of the liquid breakup processes such as the onset and growth of instabilities. The derived joint droplet size and velocity distribution function depends on the Weber number as well as the liquid mass, momentum and energy source terms.These parameters represent the conditions under which the atomization occurs. The droplet velocity distributions are truncated Gaussian distributions for any specific sizes. The nondimensional Sauter mean diameter decreases slightly with the Weber number and then approaches an asymptotic constant. The calculated values of D21/D30 are very close to unity which agrees with the experimental observations. The computations also show that the atomization efficiency is very low; less than 2.6 percent.