Influence of Liquid Properties on Airblast Atomizer Spray Characteristics

Abstract

A series of tests has been carried out on a specially designed airblast atomizer in which the liquid is first spread into a thin sheet and then subjected on both sides to the atomizing action of high velocity air. The primary aim of the invesitgation was to examine the influence on mean drop size of liquid viscosity, surface tension and density. The liquids employed represented a range of values of surface tension from 26 to 73 dynes/cm, while viscosity and density were varied between 1.3 and 124 centipoise and 0.8 and 1.8 gm / cm3 , respectively. Atomizing air velocities covered the range of practical interest to the designers of continuous combustion systems and varied between 60 and 125 m/sec. Analysis of the experimental data showed that they could be described to a reasonable order of accuracy by the following empirical expression: SMD = 521 Va−1 · σ0.5 · ρ0.75 (1 + WlWa) + 0.037 η0.85(σρ)1.2 (1 + WlWa)2