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Disintegration of Free-falling Liquid Droplets, Jets, and Arrays in Air

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Abstract

A major challenge of irrigating limited areas by dropping liquid from a high altitude using aviation is to ensure the required droplet size distribution of the aerosol immediately before contact with the surface to be irrigated. Varying the initial liquid volume and the drop height can provide different droplet sizes in an aerosol cloud when it reaches the irrigated surface. However, it is extremely difficult to predict such aerosol characteristics when using local drop systems. This requires reliable experimental data on the size to which liquid droplets can be atomized when free-falling in a gaseous medium with a variable initial volume and length of the flight path. This paper presents the results of the experimental research into the transformation and subsequent disintegration of free-falling droplets, jets, and non-sprayed arrays of liquid in gas. Using the experimental results, we determined the minimum, average and maximum droplet sizes in the forming aerosol cloud after the deformation and subsequent disintegration of the falling liquid array. When generalizing the experimental findings, we obtained the empirical equation coefficients making it possible to reliably predict the average sizes of liquid droplets when they are dropped as non-sprayed arrays, jets and aerosols from different heights. The research findings can be used to develop effective technologies for supplying liquids with different initial volumes from variable drop heights into the required area, for example, when extinguishing fires or irrigating various areas.

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Abbreviations

d m :

Average droplet diameter, m

H :

Height of array drop/liquid spraying above the recording area, m

k 1, k 2, k 3 :

Empirical coefficients

N n :

Number concentration of particles, %

N v :

Volume concentration of particles, %

Q :

Volumetric flow rate, ml/s

R d :

Radius of droplet/fragment, mm

R d av :

Average radius of droplet (liquid fragment), mm

R d max :

Maximum radius of droplet (liquid fragment), mm

Re:

Reynolds criterion

V :

Initial volume of array, ml

V m :

Volume of residual array, ml

V f :

Fragment volume, ml

We:

Weber criterion

δ :

Size of liquid jet (diameter or thickness of jet deformation), m

μ :

Viscosity of liquid, Pa·s

ν :

Relative velocity of gas and liquid, m/s

ρ :

Density of liquid, kg/m3

σ :

Surface tension coefficient, N/m

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Funding

The research was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (project 21–19–00009, https://rscf.ru/en/project/21-19-00009/).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University, 30 Lenin Avenue, Tomsk, 634050, Russia

    Genii Kuznetsov, Alena Zhdanova, Ivan Voitkov & Pavel Strizhak

Authors
  1. Genii Kuznetsov
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  2. Alena Zhdanova
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  3. Ivan Voitkov
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  4. Pavel Strizhak
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Correspondence to Genii Kuznetsov.

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Highlights

• Droplets less than 150 mm in size are practically not disintegrated during free fall

• With an 8–12% droplet concentration in the cloud, size distributions do not change

• Droplet sizes are comparable after 10 m of array, jet, and aerosol falling

• Arrays, jets, and aerosols break up into fragments that differ several-fold in size

• Droplets in aerosol flows tend to coalesce when decelerating in a gas

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Kuznetsov, G., Zhdanova, A., Voitkov, I. et al. Disintegration of Free-falling Liquid Droplets, Jets, and Arrays in Air. Microgravity Sci. Technol. 34, 12 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12217-022-09927-6

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