Design and Study of Conical Pressure-Swirl Atomizers

Abstract

The paper shows the results of experimental studies for two-phase swirl atomizers with two inlet ports different in terms of design. The effect of volumetric liquid and gas flow rate and the height and diameter of mixing chamber on the discharge coefficients, histograms, radial distributions of mean droplet diameters in the drop stream and the mean Sauter diameter were determined. The studies were conducted within the air flow rates not exceeding 5.6·10−4 [m3/s] and water flow rate 1.11·10−5 [m3/s]. It was shown that the discharge coefficient increases with the higher Reynolds number for the liquid and decreases with the higher gas flow rate. The increased liquid flow rate caused greater drop diameters and increased gas flow rate allowed to obtain droplets with smaller sizes. The value of Sauter means that the diameter is dependent on the ratio of height to the diameter of mixing chamber. The rapid increase in the mean droplet diameter occurs above the value of H S /D S ≈ 2.75. It was further noted that higher gas flow rate within the aerosol axis gives rise to the drops with smaller diameters and there is a clear difference in the size of droplets between the central stream area and its edges. In addition, the empirical correlation was proposed for the discharge coefficient as a function of work characteristics and geometric dimensions of the atomizer. The obtained data can be used for designing new atomizers and are essential from the viewpoint of agriculture or combustion processes.