Effects of self-pulsation on the spray characteristics of gas-liquid swirl coaxial injector

To understand the influence of self-pulsation on the spray characteristics of gas-liquid swirl coaxial injector, a back-lighting photography technique has been employed to capture the instantaneous self-pulsated spray and stable spray images with a high speed camera. The diameter and velocity of the droplets in the spray have been characterized with a Dantec Phase Doppler Anemometry (PDA) system. The effects of self-pulsation on the spray pattern, primary breakup, spray angle, diameter and velocity distribution and mass flow rate distribution are analyzed and discussed. The results show that the spray morphology is greatly influenced by self-pulsation. The stable spray has a cone shape, while the self-pulsated spray looks like a Christmas tree. The main difference of these two sprays is the primary breakup. The liquid film of stable spray keeps stable while that of self-pulsated spray oscillates periodically. The film width of self-pulsated spray varies in a large range with 'neck' and 'shoulder' features existing. The liquid film of self-pulsated spray breaks up at the second neck, and then the second shoulder begins to breakup into ligaments. The self-pulsated spray produces droplet clusters periodically, varies horizontal spray width and mass flux periodically. From the point of spatial distribution, self-pulsation is good for the spray, it uniformizes the mass flux along radius and increases the spray angle. However, when self-pulsation occurs, the SMD distribution varies from an inverted V shape to a hollow cone shape, and SMD increases at all the measuring points. Namely, from the point of atomization performance, self-pulsation has negative effects even when the breakup length is smaller. The effects of self-pulsation on the diameter and velocity distributions of the spray are mainly in the center part of the spray. The periphery of stable and self-pulsated spray has similar diameter and velocity distribution.