Influence of Ambient Air Pressure on Pressure-Swirl Atomizer Spray Characteristics

Abstract

A single-component PDPA is used to evaluate the spray characteristics of a simplex pressure-swirl atomizer when operating at high liquid flow rates and elevated ambient air pressures. Attention is focused on the effects of air pressure on mean drop size, drop-size distribution, mean velocity, volume flux, and number density. Using a constant flow rate of 75 g/s, measurements are carried out along the spray radii at a fixed distance downstream from the atomizer face of 50 mm. The air pressures of 1, 8, and 12 bars chosen for these tests correspond to air densities of 1.2, 9.6, and 14.4 kg/m3. The purpose of the investigation is to supplement the existing body of information on pressure-swirl spray characteristics, most of which were obtained at normal atmospheric ambient pressures, with new data that correspond more closely to the conditions prevailing in the primary combustion zones of modern gas turbines. The results obtained are explained mainly in terms of the influence of air pressure on spray structure, in particular spray cone angle and Weber number.