Video Techniques Applied to the Characterization of Liquid Sheet Breakup

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Berthoumieu, P. | Lavergne, G.

Affiliations: ONERA -DMAE, 2 Avenue Edouard Belin, BP 4025 31055 Toulouse Cedex 4, France. e-mail: pierre.berthoumieu@onecert.fr

Abstract: The understanding of the disintegration of a thin liquid film is the first step to obtain an accurate model of air-blast atomization. Various physical phenomena are involved in liquid sheet breaking. Planar sheets are often studied, assuming that the sheet behavior is representative of the behavior of real annular sheets, because their investigation is easier using optical techniques. Those kinds of measurements have been applied to determine and quantify the different steps of droplet generation. Global oscillation of the liquid sheet, ligaments formation and their breaking are approached. The evolution of ligament spacing according to oscillation frequency removes the sheet thickness influence. Correlations are now applicable to determine size of initial droplets. In this study the same investigation techniques have been applied on annular and planar configurations to find the eventual discrepancies.

Keywords: liquid sheet, atomization, breakup

Journal: Journal of Visualization, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 267-275, 2001