Turbulent Phenomena in the Aerobreakup of Liquid Droplets

Abstract

This work presents the computational simulation results of turbulent phenomena in a high velocity multiphase flow, where the predominantly turbulent phase is the gaseous phase. For reliable simulation results the code is validated by comparing results of a single phase supersonic turbulent flow to other simulation and experimental results and good agreement is found. This is a precondition for the simulation of the initial stages of the breakup of a liquid droplet in a high Weber number flow. The role of the subgrid-scale turbulence is investigated and two distinct regions are identified. In the second region turbulence phenomena seem to be the predominant factors for the characteristic shape. Simulation results are compared to experiments of the droplet breakup at high Weber number.