Characteristics of the spray produced by liquid sheets atomization

The problem of predicting the characteristics of the spray formed by the disintegration of liquid sheets is considered A; second order nonlinear perturbation analysis is employed to investigate the evolution,of the instability waves that lead to sheet breakup. The mechanisms of atomization of both constant thickness and attenuating liquid sheets are studied. The results indicate that the sheet disintegrates into ligaments at each half wavelength. The sheet breakup length, thickness and time as well as the size of the drops, and the spray angle produced by sheet disintegration are estimated It is found that breakup length, breakup time, and resultant drop size decrease as Weber number is increased Both the breakup thickness and initial spray angle increase by raising Weber number. The present theoretical predictions are compared with empirical correlations and experimental data and favorable agreement is observed.