Atomization stage analysis of liquid dynamic compaction process by fractional factorial design

The liquid dynamic compaction comprises two consecutive stages, namely, atomization and deposition. The size of the droplets in the atomization stage strongly affects the quality of the product, which on its tom is controlled by the atomization process parameters. This work studied through two-level fractional factorial design the effect of the liquid metal over pressure, the pressure of the atomizing gas, length and diameter of the liquid metal discharge tube, the effective area of the atomizer nozzle gas outlet and the degree of super-heating of the liquid metal on the mean droplet size. The main parameters determining the mean droplet size showed to be the pressure of the atomizing gas and the diameter of the liquid metal discharge tube. The other parameters and their interactions only have a slight effect. To obtain smaller droplets the gas pressure should be maintained high and/or the diameter of the liquid metal discharge tube should be small.