Experimental characterisation of sprays resulting from impacts of liquid-containing projectiles

Modelling and analysing fires following aircraft impacts requires information about the behaviour of liquid fuel. In this study, we investigated sprays resulting from the impacts of water-filled metal projectiles on a hard wall. The weights of the projectiles were in the range of 38-110 kg, with 8.6-68 kg water, and the impact speeds varied between 96 and 169 m/s. The overall spray behaviour was observed with high-speed video cameras. Ultra-high-speed cameras were used in backlight configuration for measuring the droplet size and velocity distributions. The results indicate that the liquid leaves the impact position as a thin sheet of spray in a direction perpendicular to the projectile velocity. The initial spray speeds were 1.5-2.5 times the impact speed, and the Sauter mean diameters were in the 147-344 μm range. This data can be used as boundary conditions in CFD fire analyses, considering the two-phase fuel flow. The overall spray observations, including the spray deceleration rate, can be used for validating the model.