Direct numerical simulation of droplet breakup in homogeneous isotropic turbulence: The effect of the Weber number

Abstract

We report the direct numerical simulation of droplet breakup in forced homogeneous isotropic turbulence with a mass-conserving level set method. In particular, the effect of the Weber number on the interface morphology of droplet breakup and the interaction between vortical structures and the interface are addressed. The densities and viscosities are the same for both phases in the present simulations. It is found that with increasing the Weber number, the initially large-scale spherical droplet tends to break down into dispersed small droplets. Compared with the flow local topology in the carrier-phase turbulence, the local topology of the bi-axial strain is suppressed at the statistical stationary state inside the droplet. During the droplet breakup process, the vorticity tends to be tangent to the large-scale interface at the early stage, and subsequently the alignment is mitigated for large Weber numbers, because the small droplets with relatively strong surface tension and small local Weber numbers can resist the deformation induced by local turbulent straining motion in the statistically stationary state.