Primary breakup of liquid fan sheet in crossflow

Abstract

This paper presents the primary breakup of liquid sheet under the influence of crossflow. The atomization of liquid sheets is important for many applications, e.g., agricultural sprays, fuel atomization, and spray coatings, among others. The aerodynamic effects on the liquid breakup process is investigated experimentally to identify the breakup regime transitions. A subsonic wind tunnel was used to simulate the crosswind effects on flat fan nozzle spray. Two flat fan nozzles sizes were tested in this study. High-speed digital imaging technique was used to measure the breakup regime transitions, the location of the end of the liquid core, the breakup time, the location, and size of droplets at onset of breakup and the spray trajectory. The results were correlated using phenomenological analyses. The aerodynamic effects were responsible for initiating bag breakup and reducing the droplet sizes which are susceptible to drift. This would be problematic for spraying herbicides in windy conditions.