Collaborative Research: Fuel Droplet Disruption under Locally Supersonic Conditions

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). 0853817/0853396Hermanson/TryggvasonThis preliminary experimental and computational research program will study the physical mechanisms of disruption and vaporization of liquid droplets in supersonic flow. These mechanisms include the deformation of the droplet due to aerodynamic forces, the inertial instability associated with droplet acceleration, and shear instability due to the high-speed flow across the droplet surface. An additional instability can result from the rapid evaporation that can result from the droplet fluid becoming superheated due to the low static pressure in the test section. The action of these mechanisms will be systematically studied by varying both the flow and thermal boundary conditions, including the Mach number relative to the droplet and the liquid composition. The possible existence of optimum combinations of parameters, such as droplet size, vapor pressure, and compressible free-stream conditions for the most rapid droplet disruption and vaporization will be explored. The original and potentially transformative aspects of this research stem from the combination of locally supersonic conditions with potential liquid superheating, which explores a practically important regime of droplet disruption that has not been examined in depth or in a systematic fashion to date. Droplets will be injected into supersonic flow using small-scale supersonic wind tunnels at the University of Washington (UW). A droplet-on-demand generator will produce monodisperse droplets sufficiently small that the droplets will not disrupt too quickly, but sufficiently large so that the droplets will "lag" the supersonic airflow to create compressible conditions relative to the droplet. Different test section geometries will produce droplets with both subsonic and supersonic Mach numbers relative to the surrounding flow. Diagnostic techniques will include planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF), spark schlieren/shadowgraph imaging, double-pulsed laser velocity measurement, and direct photography. These techniques will provide detailed knowledge of the droplet deformation/disruption, the dispersion of the expelled vapor, the droplet acceleration, the compressible flow field near the droplet, and the features of the interfacial instabilities. The computational modeling at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) will employ a finite volume/front-tracking method capable of simulating droplet deformation and explosive evaporation under compressible flow conditions. The simulations will be conducted synergistically with the experiments, using flow information from the experiments to guide the development and implementation of the numerical modeling. In turn, the numerical simulations will serve both to guide the conduct of the experiments as well as to help interpret the experimental results by providing key information not readily accessible by the experiments, such as the pressure variation in the vicinity of the droplets and the rate of vaporization. This research topic has applications to a number of practically important problems involving the injection of liquids in high-speed flows, including supersonic combustion ramjets (scramjets), pulsed detonation engines, re-entry body cooling, and surface erosion in high-speed flows. Such applications are impacted critically by the nature of droplet disruption and vaporization mechanisms of the liquid fuel droplets to be studied. This research will also directly impact education. The planar laser induced fluorescence and pulsed-laser droplet/particle velocity measurement techniques introduced into the undergraduate curriculum through existing experimental methods courses at the UW. Similarly, the numerical work will lead to examples that will be utilized as classroom examples at WPI. Undergraduate students will also participate directly in carrying out the research. The graduate students will actively participate in the undergraduate component of the program by serving, under faculty supervision, in the role of "grant monitor" for the undergraduate component of the research. Lastly, the co-PIs will recruit qualified and interested members of under-represented groups to conduct research at the University of Washington and at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.