Influence of Downstream Distance on the Drop Size Characteristics of an Evaporative Liquid Spray in a Convective Gaseous Medium

Abstract

Numerical studies have been made to evaluate the interdependence of drop size characteristics and evaporation histories of an atomized liquid spray in a convective medium of uniform free stream at high temperature. With the help of a discrete droplet evaporation model, both the actual drop size distribution and the apparent one, that could have been obtained in practice by light-scattering technique, have been determined numerically at different downstream locations perpendicular to the spray axis. Variations of actual and apparent mass mean diameter and the evaporation rate with the axial distance of the spray have been established. Finally, the influences of pertinent input parameters, namely, the initial Reynolds number of the spray, the ratio of free stream to initial drop temperature and the ratio of free stream to initial drop velocity on the mean diameter and evaporation histories have been recognized.