Numerical simulation of a water spray—Radiation attenuation related to spray dynamics

Radiation attenuation by a water spray is predicted on the basis of a detailed simulation. First of all, a two-way coupling treatment of the spray dynamics is achieved through an Eulerian–Lagrangian modeling. Droplet distribution combined with water vapor and carbon dioxide volume fractions are then used to compute the radiative properties of the medium. A simulation of radiation propagation is performed, aimed at the computation of the spectral transmittance through the spray. A Monte Carlo technique is used to describe radiation absorption and scattering phenomena for a real droplet polydispersion and an equivalent monodispersion. Numerical results of spray attenuation are compared to experimental data obtained on a laboratory spray with low flow rate. Satisfying accuracy can be obtained for the numerical prediction if a realistic size distribution is used for the pulverization. The mean Sauter diameter and the volumetric fraction of droplets are found to vary with the position in the spray. Tentative predictions with a monodispersion therefore fail in predicting the attenuation ability of the spray at various vertical positions below the injection point.     

Influences of spray and operating parameters on penetration of vaporizing fuel droplets in a gas turbine combustor

The effects of inlet spray and operating parameters on penetration and vaporization histories of fuel droplets of a liquid fuel spray injected into a turbulent swirling flow of air through a typical can type gas turbine combustor, have been evaluated from numerical solutions of the conservation equations in gas and droplet phases. The computational scheme is based on the typical stochastic separated flow model of the gas-droplet flow within the combustor. A κ–ε model with wall function treatment for near wall region has been adopted for the solution of conservative equations in gas phase. The initial spray parameters are specified by a suitable PDF size distribution and a given spray cone angle. It has been recognized that the penetration of vaporizing droplets is reduced with an increase in inlet air swirl and spray cone angle. An increase in inlet air pressure or a decrease in inlet air temperature also results in a reduction in droplet penetration. The inlet air pressure and spray cone angle are found to be the most influencing parameters in this regard.     

Numerical simulation of counter-flow spray saturator for humid air turbine cycle

The numerical simulations of simultaneous heat and mass transfer process in the counter-flow spray saturator and humid air turbine cycle are carried out in this work, according to the experimental conditions and actual size of a prototype saturator. This humidifying process involves two-phase flow of air and water droplets, also including interaction, breakup and collision of water droplets. Eulerian approach is used for gas phase flow, Lagrangian approach is used for liquid phase flow, and the two-way coupling is used between two phases. The simulations agree well with the experimental measurements. The simulations show the flow is with high turbulence intensity, the relative humidity and temperature of humid air increase along with the height of saturator, some water droplets carried by air escape from the saturator, and the humid air is mainly humidified at the lower part of saturator and is simultaneously humidified and heated at the upper part.     

Numerical Investigation of the Combustion Characteristics and Nitric Oxide Formation in a Municipal Waste Incinerator

Numerical analysis has been carried out to investigate the combustion and NO formation and distribution characteristics using a beta probability density function (PDF) method in a three-dimensional municipal waste incinerator by considering the turbulent reacting flow with thermal radiation. For numerical calculation, the multiblock method is adopted to simulate a complex geometry. The program developed has been validated with a commercial program. Considering not only thermal NO but also prompt NO, parametric studies for excess air ratio, secondary air injection, and radiation have been undertaken. By increasing the primary air supply, higher excess air ratio lowers the temperature inside the incinerator so that the amount of NO formation is reduced. When the secondary air injection is considered, more secondary air injection does not always reduce NO formation because of another factor, the equivalence ratio. Additionally, in order to simulate the real situation in an incinerator, nongray gas radiation should be introduced, since including the radiation effect results in lower NO formation because of radiative heat loss.     

Numerical study on flash‐boiling spray of multicomponent fuel

Flash‐boiling occurs when a fuel is injected into a combustion chamber where the ambient pressure is lower than the saturation pressure of the fuel. It has been known that flashing is a favorable mechanism for atomizing liquid fuels. On the other hand, alternative fuels, such as gaseous fuels and oxygenated fuels, are used to achieve low exhaust emissions in recent years. In general, most of these alternative fuels have high volatility and flash‐boiling takes place easily in the fuel spray when injected into the combustion chamber of an internal combustion engine under high pressure. In addition the multicomponent mixture of high‐ and low‐volatility fuels has been proposed in the previous study in order to control the spray and combustion processes in an internal combustion engine. It was found that the multicomponent fuel produces flash‐boiling with an increase in the initial fuel temperature. Therefore, it is important to investigate these flash‐boiling processes in fuel spray. In the present study, the submodels of a flash‐boiling spray are constructed. These submodels consider the bubble nucleation, growth, and disruption in the nozzle orifice and injected fuel droplets. The model is implemented in KIVA3V and the spray characteristics of multicomponent fuel with and without flashing are numerically investigated. In addition, these numerical results are compared with experimental data obtained in the previous study using a constant volume vessel. The flashing spray characteristics from numerical simulation qualitatively show good agreement with the experimental results. In particular, it is confirmed from both the numerical and experimental data that flash‐boiling effectively accelerates the atomization and vaporization of fuel droplets. This means that a lean homogeneous mixture can be quickly formed using flash‐boiling in the combustion chamber. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res, 35(5): 369–385, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/htj.20117     

Experimental investigations of spray generated by a pressure swirl atomizer

This paper has focused on the droplets behavior of kerosene RP-3 spray produced by a pressure swirl atomizers in terms of spray pattern, droplet size spatial distribution, mean droplet size, and distribution index with variations of pressure differential. The analyses have been carried out experimentally with the aid of optical diagnostic methods. The spray pattern, such as spray cone angle and fuel spatial distribution, has been measured by the technique of planar laser induced fluorescence of kerosene. A method for correction of fuel distribution measurement error induced by laser attenuation in spray is proposed and validated. The droplet size spatial distribution in central axis plane of the spray has been measured by a planar droplet sizing method which combining laser induced fluorescence and Mie scattering. The spray pattern in axial center plane and cross-sectional plane perpendicular to axis of the atomizer indicate that the droplets in spray concentrate around the outer periphery and in a narrow annular zone at the near-field of fuel injector exit, and then disperse to produce a solid spray at downstream of the spray. The analyses of droplet size spatial distribution, Sauter mean diameter, and distribution index with pressure differential clearly show the presence of droplets collision and its adverse effects on droplet size uniformity. The spray outline, droplet mass spatial distribution, and droplet size spatial distribution, droplets dispersion and collision in the process of atomization provide a great insight into the processes of atomization and spray development, which are key information for fuel injector design and quality control. The visualizations of spray pattern and droplet size spatial distribution with variations of pressure differential for pressure swirl atomizer are key issues in swirl cup or internally staged airblast fuel injectors because pressure swirl atomizer provides primary atomization or pilot spray which affects the quality of air/fuel mixing in lean-burn combustion. Moreover, a well-defined and complete database regarding the isothermal hollow cone spray is provided for validation of spray model.     

Verification on spray simulation of a pintle injector for liquid rocket engine

The pintle injector used for a liquid rocket engine is a newly re-attracted injection system famous for its wide throttle ability with high efficiency. The pintle injector has many variations with complex inner structures due to its moving parts. In order to study the rotating flow near the injector tip, which was observed from the cold flow experiment using water and air, a numerical simulation was adopted and a verification of the numerical model was later conducted. For the verification process, three types of experimental data including velocity distributions of gas flows, spray angles and liquid distribution were all compared using simulated results. The numerical simulation was performed using a commercial simulation program with the Eulerian multiphase model and axisymmetric two dimensional grids. The maximum and minimum velocities of gas were within the acceptable range of agreement, however, the spray angles experienced up to 25% error when the momentum ratios were increased. The spray density distributions were quantitatively measured and had good agreement. As a result of this study, it was concluded that the simulation method was properly constructed to study specific flow characteristics of the pintle injector despite having the limitations of two dimensional and coarse grids.     

Gas entrainment in an evaporating spray jet

Gas entrainment induced by a spray jet can be significantly affected by the spray evaporation rate. In this study, we have directly measured the air entrainment induced by a liquid nitrogen spray jet into an unbounded and stagnant room air. It is realized that the air entrainment is proportional to the axial gradient of oxygen mass flow in a pure nitrogen spray jet. Hence, the air entrainment can be determined by a combined measurement of local cross-sectional distributions of oxygen concentration, gas temperature and gas velocity along the jet path. These measurements are directly obtained using an in situ oxygen concentration analyzer, a thermocouple system, and a Laser Doppler Velocimeter. In order to evaluate the effect of evaporation rate, direct measurements and numerical simulations of the air entrainment by a cold gaseous jet of nitrogen (at a temperature slightly above that of liquid nitrogen) into room air are also performed. Measurements of the entrainment rate and flow similarity of the gaseous jets without droplets compared very well against those from the single-phase jet theories and numerical simulation, which validates our experimental approach and analysis method. Our experimental results indicate rough flow similarities exist in evaporating spray jets with round nozzles. Although the air entrainment by the liquid nitrogen spray is found significantly increased, as compared to that by the cold gaseous jet of nitrogen from the same nozzle and at the same jetting velocity, the increased ratio is far less than the equivalent momentum ratio of the liquid nitrogen spray to the gas nitrogen jet. This experimental finding suggests that the evaporation of spray markedly weakens the gas entrainment. In this study, a parametric model is also developed to provide a theoretical basis of the data analysis for the cross-section averaged spray evaporation rate within the spray jet region.     

预测直喷式柴油机NO排放模型的研究(Ⅰ)直喷式柴油机的燃烧模型

本文介绍了一个有一定使用价值而又相对比较简单的准维柴油机燃烧模型.模型将喷入的燃油喷雾分成若干计算小区,并假定各小区之间不发生传质,各小区吸收喷雾外区域卷吸入的空气和接收喷入的燃油;除利用一系列经验公式计算喷雾的轨迹、空气的卷吸、燃油在喷雾中的径向分布和缸内气体与外界的热交换外,还应用了独立的反应动力模型.     

Buoyancy effects on the characteristics of a laminar boundary layer diffusion flame in a confined flow

An experimental study is described in which a laminar two-dimensional diffusion flame has been established by injecting n-pentane vapor uniformly through a porous flat plate into the laminar boundary layer in a confined flow. The influence of the direction of injection of fuel with respect to the gravitational vector on the structure, stability, and extinction limits of the diffusion flame have been studied. The most significant observation of the effect of downward injection of fuel was the absence of the velocity overshoot near the flame zone, which was present for upward injection of the fuel. Also separation of the boundary layer occured below a critical free stream oxidant velocity which was not observed when the fuel was injected in an upward direction.     

Mathematical modeling of the working cycle of oil injected rotary twin screw compressor

Oil injected twin-screw air and gas compressors are widely used for medium pressure applications in many industries. Low cost air compressors can be adopted for compression of helium and special gases, leading to significant cost saving. Mathematical analysis of oil injected twin-screw compressor is carried out on the basis of the laws of perfect gas and standard thermodynamic relations. Heat transfer coefficient required for computer simulation is experimentally obtained and used in performance prediction, when the working medium being air or helium. A mathematical model has been developed for calculating the compressor performance and for validating the results with experimental data. The flow coefficients required for numerical simulation to calculate leakage flow rates are obtained from efficiency verses clearance curves. Effect of some of the compressor operating and design parameters on power and volumetric efficiencies have been analyzed and presented.     

应用双脉中激光全息术对柴油机喷雾运动的研究

本文介绍利用双脉冲激光全息术研究柴油机喷雾油束的宏观运动瞬时速度和喷雾粒子的微观运动速度。得到了节流轴针式油嘴雾油束在喷射开始１ｍｓ内宏观速度分布规律的新认识，并给出了喷雾粒子微观运动轨迹照片，讨论了喷雾粒子场的微观速度分布规律。     

多流体碱雾发生器内蒸发喷雾射流的数值模拟

通过对多流体碱雾发生器中伴随气固两相流的蒸发喷雾射流的数值模拟,得到了碱雾发生器内气液固三相的速度矢量场.计算结果表明,气体轴向速度呈中间高两头低的对称分布;对于不同粒径的液滴,呈现出不同的空间分布规律,大液滴由于惯性大,可以穿越周围的气流区,比小液滴有更大的扩展角;在喷嘴出口2倍管道直径区域,由于雾化液滴与固体颗粒存在较大的速度差,有利于固体颗粒的碰撞增湿.     

进气涡流和喷油系统参数对大功率柴油机混合气形成的影响研究

通过对大功率柴油机的油气混合及燃烧过程进行三维数值模拟,定量研究了进气系统和喷油系统的参数对混合气形成的影响。结果表明：进气涡流通过加速空气掺和到喷注中的过程,增强空气与油滴的相对运动,加速空气向油滴的传热等促进燃油与空气的混合;喷孔数通过影响燃油的贯穿距离以及空气夹带量进而影响油气的混合。利用燃油质心的偏转角和燃油质心贯穿距离定量表征进气涡流以及喷孔数对油气混合的影响。     

Dispersion and vaporization of biofuels and conventional fuels in a crossflow pre-mixer

In lean premixed pre-vaporized (LPP) combustion, controlled atomization, dispersion and vaporization of different types of liquid fuel in the premixer are the key factors required to stabilize the combustion process and improve the efficiency. The dispersion and vaporization process for biofuels and conventional fuels sprayed into a crossflow pre-mixer have been simulated and analyzed with respect to vaporization rate, degree of mixedness and homogeneity. Two major biofuels under investigation are Ethanol and Rapeseed Methyl Esters (RME), while conventional fuels are gasoline and jet-A. First, the numerical code is validated by comparing with the experimental data of single n-heptane and decane droplet evaporating under both moderate and high temperature convective air flow. Next, the spray simulations were conducted with monodispersed droplets with an initial diameter of 80 μm injected into a turbulent crossflow of air with a typical velocity of 10 m/s and temperature of around 800 K. Vaporization time scales of different fuels are found to be very different. The droplet diameter reduction and surface temperature rise were found to be strongly dependent on the fuel properties. Gasoline droplet exhibited a much faster vaporization due a combination of higher vapor pressure and smaller latent heat of vaporization compared to other fuels. Mono-dispersed spray was adopted with the expectation of achieving more homogeneous fuel droplet size than poly-dispersed spray. However, the diameter histogram in the zone near the pre-mixer exit shows a large range of droplet diameter distributions for all the fuels. In order to improve the vaporization performance, fuels were pre-heated before injection. Results show that the Sauter mean diameter of ethanol improved from 52.8% of the initial injection size to 48.2%, while jet-A improved from 48.4% to 18.6% and RME improved from 63.5% to 31.3%. The diameter histogram showed improved vaporization performance of jet-A.     

Experimental and theoretical studies on air humidification by a water spray at elevated pressure

Humidification of compressed air is important for humid air turbine cycle. In this paper, theoretical and experimental investigations are carried out to analyze and predict the humidification process in spray tower.For predicting the heat and mass transfer in the water droplet–air two-phase flow, a one-dimensional numerical model simulating the conservation of heat and mass of water and humid air was developed. The model considers the effect of droplet motion on the heat and mass transfer. Experimental data were obtained on a pressurized model spray tower at different pressures and water/air ratios, which had been adopted to validate the numerical model. Droplet diameter of the spray was measured and these data were used in the model. Predictions of outlet conditions of air and water for giving input conditions agree well with experimental data, which produces a maximal error of 7.3%. On the basis of the model, distributions of droplet velocity and volumetric heat transfer coefficient over height of the tower are predicted. The effect of droplet diameter on the characteristic performance of spray humidifier is also analyzed in the simulation.     

Numerical investigation of the effects of fuel spray type on the interaction of fuel spray and hot porous medium

The interaction between two types of fuel spray and a hot porous medium is studied numerically by using an improved version of KIVA-3V code. The improved KIVA-3V code is incorporated with an impingement model, a heat transfer model and a linearized instability sheet atomization (LISA) model to model the hollow cone spray. An evaporating fuel spray impingement on a hot plane surface was simulated under conditions of experiments performed by Senda to validate the reasonability of the KIVA-3V code. The numerical results conform well with experimental data for spray radius in the liquid and the vapor phases. Computational results on the interaction of two types of the fuel spray and the hot porous medium show that the fuel spray can be split, which provides conditions for quick evaporation of fuel droplets and mixing of fuel vapor with air. The possibility of fuel droplets from hollow cone spray crossing the porous medium reduces compared with that from solid cone spray, with the same initial kinetic energy of fuel droplets in both injection types. __________ Translated from Journal of Engineering Thermophysics, 2007, 28(2): 354–356 [译自: 工程热物理学报]     

Interaction between near-wall turbulence structure and immiscible droplets falling with wobbling motion in upward water flow

Flow visualization and image processing have been carried out for turbulent upward water flow with falling immiscible droplets of perfluorocarbon or hydrofluoroether in a pipe. It is found that the decreases of the mean velocity and the increases of the turbulence intensities are caused by the droplet wake flow. The droplets of FC-72 fall near the axis with small-amplitude wobbling motion. On the other hand, the droplets of HFE-7200 fall near the pipe wall with noticeable wobbling motion. The near-wall turbulence structure is modified by the wake flow of the wobbling droplets. Also, direct numerical simulation has been carried out for understanding the modification of near-wall heat transfer by the droplet. It is found that the outward flow in the wake carries hot fluid into the central region and that the wallward flow induced by the main flow impingement onto the cap of droplet carries cool fluid into the near-wall region. These cause near-wall heat transfer enhancement. The ratio of the energy associated with the droplet and that of the equivalent fluid lump is effective for discussing the wobble motion and the wake flow of the droplets.     

Numerical investigation of the effects of fuel spray type on the interaction of fuel spray and hot porous medium

The interaction between two types of fuel spray and a hot porous medium is studied numerically by using an improved version of KIVA-3V code. The improved KIVA-3V code is incorporated with an impingement model, a heat transfer model and a linearized instability sheet atomization (LISA) model to model the hollow cone spray. An evaporating fuel spray impingement on a hot plane surface was simulated under conditions of experiments performed by Senda to validate the reasonability of the KIVA-3V code. The numerical results conform well with experimental data for spray radius in the liquid and the vapor phases. Computational results on the interaction of two types of the fuel spray and the hot porous medium show that the fuel spray can be split, which provides conditions for quick evaporation of fuel droplets and mixing of fuel vapor with air. The possibility of fuel droplets from hollow cone spray crossing the porous medium reduces compared with that from solid cone spray, with the same initial kinetic energy of fuel droplets in both injection types.     

Investigations on the self-excited oscillations in a kerosene spray flame

A laboratory scale gas turbine type burner at atmospheric pressure and with air preheat was operated with aviation kerosene Jet-A1 injected from a pressure atomiser. Self-excited oscillations were observed and analysed to understand better the relationship between the spray and thermo-acoustic oscillations. The fluctuations of CH^∗ chemiluminescence measured simultaneously with the pressure were used to determine the flame transfer function. The Mie scattering technique was used to record spray fluctuations in reacting conditions with a high speed camera. Integrating the Mie intensity over the imaged region gave a temporal signal acquired simultaneously with pressure fluctuations and the transfer function between the light scattered from the spray and the velocity fluctuations in the plenum was evaluated. Phase Doppler anemometry was used for axial velocity and drop size measurements at different positions downstream the injection plane and for various operating conditions. Pressure spectra showed peaks at a frequency that changed with air mass flow rate. The peak for low air mass flow rate operation was at 220 Hz and was associated with a resonance of the supply plenum. At the same global equivalence ratio but at high air mass flow rates, the pressure spectrum peak was at 323 Hz, a combustion chamber resonant frequency. At low air flow rates, the spray fluctuation motion was pronounced and followed the frequency of the pressure oscillation. At high air flow rates, more effective evaporation resulted in a complete disappearance of droplets at an axial distance of about 1/3 burner diameters from the injection plane, leading to a different flame transfer function and frequency of the self-excited oscillation. The results highlight the sensitivity of the self-excited oscillation to the degree of mixing achieved before the main recirculation zone.