Three-Dimensional Shear Driven Thin Liquid Film in a Duct

Abstract

Measurements and predictions of three-dimensional shear driven thin liquid films by turbulent air flow in a duct are reported. FLUENT - CFD code is used to perform the numerical simulations and the Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes and continuity equations along with the Volume of Fluid (VOF) model and the realizable k-ε turbulence model are implemented for this task. Film thickness and width are reported as a function of air flow rate, liquid film volume flow rate and surface tension, and a comparison with preliminary measured results is made. The thickness of the shear driven liquid film is measured using an interferometric technique that makes use of the phase shift between the reflection of incident light from the top and bottom surfaces of the thin liquid film. The spatial resolution is determined based on the spot size of the incident light, which for the current configuration of the transmitting optics is approximately 10 microns. The resulting fringe pattern is imaged using a high-speed imaging camera operating at 2000 frames per second. The technique has proved successful in measuring thickness between 100 and 900 microns in these shear driven films. Simulation results reveal that higher gas flow velocity decreases the film thickness but increases its width, while higher liquid film flow rate increases the film thickness and increases its width. Reasonable comparison appears to exist between preliminary measured and simulated results.