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Atomization and Sprays

Journal of the International Institutes for Liquid Atomization and Spray Systems

ISSN for PRINT: 1045-5110

Institutional price:	$787.00
Issues per year:	8

Best Paper Award Selection - Editorial Board Site

2006, Volume16

139 pages

Issue price - $80.00

INEXPENSIVE AIR-ASSIST ATOMIZATION FROM 80,000 ORIFICES

Thomas J. Hoverman
School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Purdue University, 1375 Aviation Drive, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2015, USA

Steven H. Collicott
School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Purdue University, 1375 Aviation Drive, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2015, USA

ABSTRACT

A new method to produce small drop sizes with large liquid mass flow rates is demonstrated. In the present example, droplets with Sauter mean diameter of 16−80 μm are produced with liquid mass flow rates of 0.4−1.5 L/min (0.1−0.4 gallons/min). The application of inexpensive existing technology has produced a device operating up to 80,000 orifices in parallel in an air-assist mode. Capillary techniques from decades of successful on-orbit control of liquid rocket propellants in satellites are used to deliver the liquid and the air to the multitude of orifices in a controlled manner. The air and liquid are maintained as separate flows until the atomization process. Pressure drops and flow rates are presented for several configurations. Droplet size distributions are measured by laser diffraction droplet sizing.