Numerical Simulation of Turbulent Dispersion of Fuel Droplets in an Unsteady Spray via Discrete Vortex Method

The turbulent dispersion of particles in an unsteady two dimensional particle-laden jet was simulated by a discrete vortex method coupling with a model of gas/particles interaction. Numerical analysis of a spray yielded the distributions of vorticity, fuel mass concentration and local Sauter mean diameter (SMD) of droplets in a spray. The predicted distribution of local SMD of droplets in a spray demonstrated that the size of droplets in the spray periphery is larger than that of droplets in the center region of spray. This trend of distribution of drop size coincided with that of measured one. The predicted distributions of drop size and vorticity revealed that the larger droplets are easily centrifuged to the periphery of the spray. The effects of the pattern of injection rate on the mixing process in a transient spray were also investigated. The results demonstrated that the pattern of injection rate affects the mixing process during the injection, but after the end of injection this effect of injection rate is diminished and the total momentum of injection becomes main factor for the mixing process. The results also showed that the injection rate which decreases with time is available for producing the lean fuel/air mixture. 18more » refs., 7 figs., 1 tab.« less