Definition of the Single Drop Breakup Event

Abstract

Experiments are performed to record data of single drop breakup events in turbulent flow (stirred tank conditions) for improved understanding of the breakup phenomena. Different interpretations can be made of a multiple breakup event, in particular, either the initial breakup can be evaluated, or the entire breakup cascade can be considered. The examining of these two breakup definitions in the present study reveals that the binary breakup event, which is the most frequent used assumption for the number of daughter drops in the literature, is only a rough assessment of the physical truth. For a 1 mm toluene drop up to 47 daughter drops as a consequence of an entire breakup sequence were counted and the arithmetic average value was 11.7 with standard deviation of 7.7. The corresponding average value for the initial breakup was 2.39. By high-speed imaging it is possible to break down the breakup cascade into binary breakups. However, the isolation of these individual breakups is a strong simplification of t...