Abstract
In an Electrostatic Rotating Bell atomizer, fluid is driven from a central orifice over the bell-cup’s surface toward its edge by the centrifugal force. After the fluid is ejected, it breaks-up into droplets a short distance from the bell-cup’s edge due to fluid instability and pressurized air forced normal to the fluid. Images of the bell-cup’s edge were captured as a 20 wt% aqueous glycerol solution was atomized using serrated and non-serrated bell-cups. It was observed that serrations at the bell-cup’s edge dictated the atomization mechanism of the fluid; their presence caused fluid to be ejected as thin ligaments, while their absence caused fluid to be ejected as sheets. The SMD (Sauter mean diameter) of each bell-cup was determined by capturing (and processing) images at a location 7 mm downstream of the bell-cup at several angular frequencies, ω. The SMD decreased as the angular frequency of the bell-cup was increased. The finite difference method was used to solve the Navier–Stokes equation for the velocity, U, and film thickness of a fluid flowing in channels created by serrations just prior to ejection. It was shown that the rate of change of the SMD based on the angular frequency was proportional to that of the film thickness. Furthermore, a stretching rate \(\dot{\gamma } = \omega^{2} R/\overline{U}\) was derived for serrated bell-cups based on the stretching of ejected ligaments and it was shown that the SMD \(\propto \dot{\gamma }^{ - 0.5}\), where R is the distance from the axis of rotation. The SMD of sprays generated using different bell-cups operating at various angular frequencies were equal when plotted against the stretching rate \(\dot{\gamma }\).
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Abbreviations
- A :
-
Area [µm2]
- D :
-
Diameter [µm]
- E :
-
Eccentricity
- h :
-
Fluid film thickness [µm]
- l :
-
Arbitrary distance, \(= \overline{U}{\text{d}}\theta /\omega\) [m]
- ME:
-
Margin of error
- n :
-
Number of droplets
- N :
-
Sample size
- p :
-
Pressure [Pa]
- p̂ :
-
Estimate of proportion
- P :
-
Perimeter [µm]
- Q̇ :
-
Volumetric flow rate [cm3/min]
- r :
-
Radial cylindrical coordinate
- R :
-
Distance from the axis of rotation [m]
- R c :
-
Distance along cone wall [m]
- Ro:
-
Rossby number
- s :
-
Standard deviation
- SMD:
-
Sauter mean diameter [µm]
- t :
-
Time [s]
- t br :
-
Capillary time, \(= \sqrt {\rho h^{3} /\sigma }\) [s]
- t l :
-
Characteristic time, \(= \overline{U}/\omega^{2} R\) [s]
- u :
-
Velocity [m/s]
- \(\overline{U}\) :
-
Area-averaged velocity [m/s]
- v:
-
y-Direction velocity [m/s]
- w :
-
z-Direction velocity [m/s]
- x :
-
Channel length coordinate
- y :
-
Channel width coordinate
- z :
-
Channel height coordinate
- Z :
-
Confidence level
- α :
-
Cone half-angle [°]
- β :
-
Vertex angle of a triangle [°]
- \(\dot{\gamma }\) :
-
Stretching rate, \(= \omega^{2} R/\overline{U}\) [ms−1]
- δ:
-
Mesh size [µm]
- ζ:
-
Extrapolation factor
- θ :
-
Azimuthal cylindrical coordinate [rad]
- κ:
-
Vertical scaling coefficient of parabola [µm−1]
- ν :
-
Kinematic viscosity [m2/s]
- ρ :
-
Density [kg/m3]
- σ :
-
Surface tension [N/m]
- ω :
-
Angular frequency [kHz]
- 32:
-
Sauter mean diameter
- C :
-
Coriolis force
- c :
-
Cone
- d :
-
Droplet
- fl:
-
Flow
- i :
-
Cell indices in y-direction
- j :
-
Cell indices in z-direction
- n :
-
Number of droplets
- r :
-
Radial
- ω :
-
Centrifugal force
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Acknowledgements
The authors thankfully acknowledge that funding for this project was provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada and by Magna Exteriors. Experiments were carried out at the test facilities of Magna Exteriors. We are grateful for the assistance of Dr. Amirreza Amighi in carrying out droplet size measurements.
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Sidawi, K., Moroz, P. & Chandra, S. Bell-cup serrations and their effect on atomization in electrostatic rotating bell atomizers. Exp Fluids 62, 180 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00348-021-03266-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00348-021-03266-9