Prediction of droplet size distribution in sprays of prefilming air-blast atomizers

Droplet size distribution is a crucial parameter of atomization process besides droplet mean diameter. In this paper, the finite stochastic breakup model (FSBM) of prefilming air-blast atomization process has been proposed according to the self-similarity of droplet breakup. There are four parameters in FSBM, which are the initial droplet diameter D0D0, the maximum stable droplet size DcDc, the minimum mass ratio of a sub-droplet to the mother droplet a  , and the droplet breakup probability P(D)P(D). The simulation results of droplet size distribution with this model agreed well with the experimental results of prefilming air-blast atomizers. With this model, the nonlinear relationship between the mean droplet diameters and droplet size distribution of the air-blast atomization process can be predicted exactly.