Effects of conducting liquid jet disintegration on specific charge of spray

Abstract

This paper is a study of the effects of jet instabilities on the current due to satellite charging compared to the main droplet current and the charge to mass ratio of highly conducting liquid. Two jet break up modes were investigated; the whipping mode of atomisation, using DC field, and the varicose mode of atomisation, employing an AC field superimposed on a DC field. For the whipping mode of instability, the experimental results have shown that the satellite current is two orders of magnitude higher than the main droplet current, while for the varicose mode, no satellite current is detected. The whipping mode of atomisation is a random phenomenon which produces polydispersed spray. It is, therefore, very difficult to apply the energy minimisation principle. However, in the case of the sausage mode of atomisation, the experimental results indicate that the energy minimisation approach pertaining to the disintegration of a charged liquid jet into uniform droplets is valid.