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Direct numerical simulation of fragmentation of droplets

University of British Columbia

The work described in the present thesis is related to a series of projects that I worked on toward the better understanding of fragmentation phenomena. In the past decades, the science of fragmentation has attracted many attentions within the researchers due to its wide range of applications. However, because of the complexity of the subject, even its basic concepts need more investigations. This thesis starts with an introduction to fragmentation of droplets using experimental or numerical approaches. It is discussed that the current mathematical and experimental tools are not able to describe all the details. Thus, high performance numerical simulations are the best alternatives to study the breakup of droplets. The introduction is followed by a discussion on the numerical method and the ranges of the non-dimensional groups. It is described that an adaptive, volume of fluid (VOF) method based on octree meshing is used, providing a notable reduction of computational cost. The rest of the thesis basically discusses the obtained results using direct numerical simulations. Two main geometries are investigated: falling droplets and droplets in a stream. For the case of falling droplets, three simulations with different Eötvös numbers are performed. For the case of droplets in a stream, two-dimensional and three-dimensional simulations are performed for a range of Weber number. The results are compared with the available mathematical theories and it is shown that the analysis presented here precisely demonstrates the mechanism of the bag breakup of falling droplets and instability growth over the droplets in an external high-speed flow. The outcomes can significantly assist the development of the secondary atomization and turbulent two-phase flows modelling.

Text

2012-06-11

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/42476

Mechanical Engineering

University of British Columbia

UBCO

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/