On the Features of Modeling the Primary Breakup of a Liquid Jet into Droplets in a Gas Flow

The task of primary breakup of a liquid jet in a gas flow and its subsequent complete atomization in a two-phase approximation is being solved. The carrier phase is gas, and the dispersed phase is liquid and its droplets formed as a result of breakup. The VOF (Volume of Fluid) model, based on the Euler-Euler approach, implemented using ANSYS software [1], is used for the solution. In the VOF model, the transport of each phase is described by their volume fractions—continuous functions of time and spatial variables. In the momentum conservation equation for the mixture, the interaction of liquid and gas with the mixture is described by the surface tension force, determined as a function of the curvature and normal vector to the interface between liquid and gas. The VOF model describes the primary breakup of the liquid jet. The Mixture and Eulerian models, from the same Euler-Euler group of ANSYS models, are also capable of describing the primary breakup of the liquid jet, but they require the average droplet diameter of the liquid phase (characteristic size of the dispersed phase particles) for their closure. It is impossible to use the Euler-Euler approach, based on convective-diffusion equations for concentration, mass, and momentum of particles (EECD) [2; 3], to describe the primary breakup of the liquid jet. However, EECD, with lower computational costs than the VOF model, describes atomization, starting from the complete atomization region. The complete atomization region of the liquid is required for the start of the Euler-Lagrange approach [4], in which the dispersed phase is described by tracking the trajectories of droplets throughout the computational domain. The droplet trajectories are calculated in the flow field of the carrier phase, obtained from the Navier-Stokes equations. Thus, complete atomization is needed for models with coefficients depending on the characteristic particle size of the dispersed phase. In two-step methods, the first step finds complete atomization using a model that describes primary breakup. The second step starts from complete atomization using an economical model. In the article, the VOF model is used to find the complete atomization of the liquid jet, providing the volume fraction distribution of the dispersed phase. A method is proposed for its interpretation in terms of droplets, verified and validated on problems of liquid film breakup [5; 6] and kerosene atomization in gas turbine mixing channels [7].

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