Ejsr 84 4 04

European Journal of Scientific Research
ISSN 1450-216X Vol.84 No.4 (2012), pp.507-521

EuroJournals Publishing, Inc. 2012
http://www.europeanjournalofscientificresearch.com

Experimental Study on the Spray Characteristics of an Air
Assisted Atomizer with Internal Mixing Chamber

Pipatpong Watanawanyoo
Graduate School of Science and Engineering
Saitama University, Saitama, Japan
E-mail: s09dh052@mail.saitama-u.ac.jp

Hirofumi Mochida

Teruyuki Furukawa

Masanori Nakamura
Division of Human Support and Production Sciences
Saitama University, 255 Shimo-Okubo, Sakura
Saitama, 338-8570, Japan

Hiroyuki Hiraharab
Division of Human Support and Production Sciences
Saitama University, 255 Shimo-Okubo, Sakura
Saitama, 338-8570, Japan.
E-mail: hhira@mail.saitama-u.ac.jp

Abstract

An air-assisted atomizer with an internal mixing chamber was developed and its
spray characteristics were investigated experimentally. The developed jet nozzle is the air-
assisted and twin-fluid atomization type that is used in a combustor of a micro gas turbine.
Pressurized air expands within the internal mixing chamber, thereby helping the liquid be
sucked by a vacuum pressure due to the ejector effect. The length of the internal mixing
chamber was varied to see its effects on atomization. The nozzle performance was
investigated and the effectiveness of internal mixing chamber was discussed. Air and liquid
flow rates were measured under the air plenum condition from 170 to 790 kPa in absolute.
Furthermore, flow near nozzle and downstream was visualized to study the spray
characteristics. Although unsteady flow was observed near the critical condition of
assisted-air pressure, the nozzle demonstrated steady flow beyond the critical condition.
The results showed that the present atomizer possessed the sufficient performance and
spray characteristics required for the combustor of several kilo-Watts used in micro gas
turbine power systems.
Experimental Study on the Spray Characteristics of an Air Assisted
Atomizer with Internal Mixing Chamber 508

Keywords: Air-assisted atomizer, twin-fluid atomization, length of the internal mixing
chamber, micro gas turbine power systems.

1. Introduction
Atomization is an essential process in combustion system, in which a bulk liquid is converted into
small droplets. Basically, the atomization can be considered as disruption of the bulk liquid due to the
combined influence of a surface tension with the internal and external forces that act on the interface
between the liquid and gas. In the absence of such forces, surface tension tends to simply attract the
liquid molecules together to form liquid jets or sheets.
Various atomization techniques for the combustion systems have been contrived. The atomizers
are classified into several types according to refining techniques of liquid, e.g. single-fluid pressure
atomizer, twin-fluid atomizer, rotary atomizer, electrostatic and ultrasonic atomizer, etc [1].

Of them,
single-fluid pressure atomizer and twin-fluid atomizer are widely used in the combustion system. The
atomizers are also classified according to the type of energy used to induce instability on a liquid. For
example, pressure energy is used for pressure atomization, gaseous/fluid energy for two-fluid
atomization, centrifugal energy for rotary atomization and vibratory energy for ultrasonic or acoustic
atomization. The different types of atomizers are developed for specific purposes.

Figure 1: Primary breakup due to the surface instability [2].

Wave
instability
Ligament
breakup
Droplet
breakup

Wave instability is one of the mechanisms to produce droplets in the atomization. According to
Fraser et al. [2], the instability of a thin liquid sheet resulting from the interaction with surrounding
medium as air or gaseous medium leads to rapidly growing surface waves. When the wave amplitude
reaches a critical value, the areas of the site that correspond to a half or a full wavelength of the
oscillation, are torn away before the leading edge is reached. Surface tension forces contract these torn
areas and rapidly produce unstable ligaments that are subsequently disintegrated into droplets by
aerodynamic forces and liquid turbulence. The breakup of the ligaments follows the varicose instability
mechanism [6]. The wavy-sheet disintegration is highly irregular and consequently the droplet sizes
significantly vary as depicted in Figure 1.
The predominant factor affecting air blast atomization was a relative velocity of air to fuel [3].
The difference in velocity accounts for the forces acting on the interface between liquid and air, which
leads to liquid breakup. The magnitude and component of the air velocity dictate the process of
atomization. Liquid breakup occurs through either the classical wave instability mechanism or prompt
atomization. When the air travels in the same direction as the liquid, i.e., the fuel and air streams co-
flow, or the time scale of the breakup process is relatively long, e.g., when the atomizing air velocity is
low, the liquid breaks up by wave instabilities. On the contrary, when the time scale is extremely short
for the wave instability to develop, the atomization occurs promptly. Such atomization is found in the
case where the air hits the liquid stream or where a relative velocity of the air to the liquid is
sufficiently large.
509 Pipatpong Watanawanyoo, Hirofumi Mochida, Teruyuki Furukawa
Masanori Nakamura and Hiroyuki Hiraharab

Figure 2: Breakup modes of air-assisted atomizer (a) Rayleigh type, (b) membrane type, (c) fiber type (d)
prompt atomization type (e) prompt atomization with air-assisted type

(a) (b) (c) (d) (e)
Fuel
Air
Classical Prompt
Air
Air
Fuel
Fuel

May, et al. [4] classified breakup modes of an air-assisted atomizers as in Figure 2 (a)-(d). The
three disintegration modes in Figure 2(a) to (c) are of the classical type. In Raleigh and membrane
types (Figure 2(a) and (b)), the breakup is induced by wave instability resulting from the generation of
capillary and surface waves. The fiber-type disintegration mode in Figure 2(c) can also be classified
into a classical type under the prompt heading. In this type, since an air-fuel relative velocity is high,
the Weber number is sufficiently large to cause immediate breakup upon injection. Figure 2(d) shows a
prompt atomization type where an atomizing air strikes perpendicularly on a liquid jet in an internal
mixing chamber to produce a spray of ligaments and droplets at the exit section of the injection orifice.
The performance of the prompt atomization is superior to the classical atomizer (Figure 2(a)-(c)).
However, in this type, the geometry of the nozzle becomes complicated, thereby necessitating a high
technology in its fabrication.
Recently, atomizers with internal mixing have been developed because of the controllability
over broad applications. In the present study, we developed the air-assisted atomizer, categorized into a
twin-fluid atomization type, for the combustor of a micro gas turbine as a local onsite power generator.
The geometry of the atomizer is schematically shown in Figure 2 (e). This nozzle was designed such
that the primary breakup takes place in the internal mixing chamber. The fundamental flow will be
described in the next section. In this paper, the nozzle performance was evaluated and the influence of
the length of internal mixing chamber on the atomization process was discussed. Then, air and liquid
flow rates were measured under the air plenum condition from 170 to 790 kPa in absolute.
Furthermore, flow near nozzle and in the downstream was visualized to study the spray characteristics.

2. Nozzle Type and Spray Pattern
2.1. Air-assisted Atomizer with Internal Mixing Chamber
While single-fluid atomizers require a high pressure to produce fine spray, twin-fluid atomizers are
able to provide a fine spray with a relatively lower supply pressure
5
.

Actually, the air-assisted atomizer
provides the finest degree of atomization under a given flow capacity and supplied pressure [6].
Additionally, we can make the desired pattern of a spray such as solid, hollowed, and flat cone, and can
control a spreading angle by designing the nozzle geometry for the controllability of twin-fluid
atomizer.

The spray pattern can be specified in the required form as the velocity of atomizing air is
controlled. Thus, the usage of internally mixed atomizers is spreading because of the controllability
and the improved quality of atomization provided by them [5,7,8]. In such atomizers, marginally
pressurized air at low flow rate is introduced into the liquid inside the atomizer. In an internally mixed,
air-assisted atomizer the atomizing air interacts with the liquid inside the injector and assists in the
atomization process [7].

As shown in Figure 3, an air-assisted atomizer with the internal mixing chamber was employed
in the present experiment. Pressurized air is supplied to the primary nozzle and it expands in the
internal mixing chamber. When the plenum pressure is smaller than a critical pressure, the flow does
not attain a sonic condition. In contrast, if the plenum pressures excesses the critical condition, the air
expands as a supersonic jet in the internal mixing chamber. Depending on the magnitude of the plenum
pressure of air, it is determined whether the pressure in the mixing chamber becomes lower than an
atmospheric pressure. The dimensions of nozzle geometry and experimental condition of atomization
used in the present study are shown in Table 1.

Figure 3: Sectional view of the present air-assisted atomizer.

Primary nozzle
Secondary nozzle
Air
Water
Subsonic
or supersonic jet
Spray
Length of
secondary nozzle
(10 mm)
Internal mixing
chamber
( L=7, 10, 12 mm)

Table 1: Geometric dimensions and experimental condition

Diameter of the primary nozzle D

= | 1.0 mm
Diameter of the secondary nozzle D
2
= | 2.5 mm
Length of the secondary nozzle L
2
=10mm
Length of the internal mixing chamber L=7, 10, 12 mm
Test liquid Distilled water
Driving gas Air
Diameter of the air inlet port |9.2 mm x1
Diameter of the water inlet port |9.0 mm x 1
Ambient pressure and temperature 100.5 kPa and 32
o
C
Air supply pressure 170-791 kPa abs.


2.2. Spray Characteristics
Before discussing the properties of the nozzle flow, the patternation [1] of the spray such as a
penetration length and a cone angle, and whether the cone is solid or hollow are described shortly. The
patternation is important in combustion such as an industrial oil burner. In general, the air-assisted
atomizer with the internal mixing chamber forms a full cone spray. The symmetry of the spray pattern
produced by an atomizer is also an important factor in most of the practical applications. In gas turbine
combustors, the fuel must be uniformly distributed to achieve high combustion efficiency, low
pollutant emission, and long turbine blade life. The behavior of droplets is governed by the relative
magnitudes of two opposing forces [1], i.e. the kinetic energy of the initial liquid jet and the
aerodynamic resistance from the surrounding gas. In the present atomizer, the liquid and air are mixed
in the internal chamber and the droplets gain a kinetic energy from air.
Whereas the atomization proceeds and the surface area of spray still increases near the nozzle,
the kinetic energy of liquid is gradually increased due to the interaction with air. The droplets have
finally exhausted their kinetic energy in the far field from the nozzle. Thus, their subsequent trajectory
is dictated mainly by gravity and the external force from the surrounding gas. In general, a compact
and narrow spray will have high penetration, while a well atomized spray, having a wide cone angle
and incurring more air resistance, tends to have a low penetration. The penetration length of the present
spray was investigated by the optical observation with laser sheet. The experimental results of the
penetration length will be discussed in section 4.3.

3. Experiments
3.1. Flow Control and Measurement
Figure 4 shows a schematic diagram of the experimental system employed in the present research. The
pressurized air was supplied through an air flow meter and its pressure was adjusted with a controller.
The water was fed from a storage tank which was placed at the same altitude of the nozzle. The water
was sucked and fed by the ejector effect from the water tank to the atomizer. The water flow rate is a
function of a supplied air pressure which was controlled with a control valve. The flow rate of the
atomizing air was controlled with an air pressure regulator and was measured with a digital flow meter.
The data of pressure and flow rates of air and water were transferred to the computer for post-analysis.
The nozzle was mounted on an aluminum frame which was placed 0.42 m above the drain tank. A
honey comb was installed in the drain tank to prevent air circulation within the tank. The size of the
tank was 740x740x530 mm, which was sufficiently large to eliminate boundary effects on the spray.

Figure 4: Schematic diagram of air and water flows.

Wa t er
s t o r age t a n k
Wa t er flo w
met er
Air flo w met er
Air flo w
co n t r o ller
Regu la t o r
Air s u p p ly
Wa t er
s u p p ly
Air a s s is t ed
a t o mizer
P C
5 3 0 mm
4 2 0 mm
7 4 0 mm S t r a iner
Dr a in t a n k


3.1. Flow Visualization
A shadowgraph technique was adopted to visualize flow near the nozzle (section 4.4) and droplets in
the downstream (section 4.5). An experimental setup of the shadowgraph technique is shown in Figure
5. A continuous wave Nd-YAG laser with 532 nm in wavelength (Spectra Physics, Millennia Pro) was
used for visualization of near the nozzle flow, while a double-pulsed Nd-YAG laser (New Wave
Research Solo III) with 532 nm in wavelength, 12 mJ/pulse, and 50 Hz of maximum repetition was
used for assessing droplets properties. Shadowgraphic images were acquired to observe a breaking-up
process at the nozzle exit with a high speed CMOS camera (IDT, XS-5). The focal length was 200 mm
and spatial resolution was 1280 x 1024 pixels. In order to minimize speckle noises, a speckle killer
(Nano photon, SK-11) was used. This device drastically decreases the coherency of source light
although the collimation of the light ray slightly down-grades. Herein, the merit of de-speckle
overcomes the regression of ray quality due to speckle noises. The laser beam passing through the
speckle killer was collimated with a lens of 100 mm in diameter (). The camera was set to focus on
the test section to achieve direct capture of shadowgraphic images [9]. Here, one of our concerns is in
the breakup process near the nozzle such that we can discuss droplet properties in the internal mixing
chamber. Another is in a variation of the nozzle performance by the air-supply pressure. The spray
characteristic near nozzle was studied by obtaining the flow images of spray for a several supply
pressures by means of the direct shadowgraph technique. Traversing the measurement section, the
spray images were acquired and the spray state at 2 axial locations i.e. near the discharge orifice of the
nozzle and 50 mm downstream from the nozzle will be discussed in the following section. On an image
processing algorithm to analyze the instantaneous behavior, an edge detection program for droplets and
coordinate determination program were developed with MATLAB. From the experimental images,
droplet velocities were calculated with two successive flow images.
Figure 6 illustrates the experimental apparatus used to capture the images of the entire flow for
measurements of spray penetration and angle. A pulsed Nd-YAG laser with 532 nm in wavelength, 50
mJ/pulse, and 15 Hz of maximum repetition (New Wave Research Solo III) was used as a light source.
The laser sheet of 0.2 mm thickness was delivered to the test section. A cylindrical lens with focal
length, f = 987 mm was used for generating the laser sheet. The images of the spray droplets were
captured with a CMOS camera used in the shadowgraph technique. The focal length in this observation
was 50 mm and the spatial resolution of this sensor is 1280 x 1024 pixels.

Figure 5: Experimental setup for visualizing flow near the nozzle and droplets in the downstream

Air assisted atomizer
Nd-YAG Laser
CMOS Camera
PulseGenerator
Speckle killer
PC
Strainer
Drain tank


Figure 6: Measurement of the spray angle and the spray penetration

Air assisted
atomizer Nd-YAG Laser
CMOS
Camera
Pulse
Generator
PC

4. Results and Discussion
4.1. Dry Test
As a preliminary study, a dry test without liquid was conducted in order to assess a fundamental air
driving performance. Because it is known that the vacuum pressure in the mixing chamber, p
c
,
influences a loading performance of the fuel, we examined dependency of the pressure in the internal
mixing chamber p
c
on the air supply pressure p
s
as shown in Figure 7. The data obtained with three
different length of the internal mixing chamber, L = 7, 10 and 12 mm are compared. Hereinafter a
pressure value is always presented in an absolute pressure unless otherwise noted. Vertical and
horizontal broken lines represent atmospheric pressure (101.325 kPa). Pressures below atmospheric
pressure are called vacuum. Overall, the data of these three followed a similar trend. The pressure
decreased with air supply pressure p
s
. Nevertheless, it slightly increased from p
s
= 650 kPa to 790 kPa
due to a limited volume of the internal mixing chamber.
For ideal air flow, choking [10] takes place at p
s
=1.89p
a
when the flow reaches the critical
condition [11]. When a pressure is larger than the critical value, the air flow has the sonic speed. In the
present atomizer, it happened in the primary nozzle. Then, the air expanded and accelerated again in
the internal mixing chamber. As a gas passed through the nozzle, its velocity increased whereas the
pressure and density decreased. The velocity became maximal in the internal mixing chamber due to
the adiabatic expansion, but the flow rate was determined by the choking condition in the primary
nozzle.
A comparison of the data in Figure 7 shows that the pressure in the internal mixing chamber p
c

gets smaller as L decreases. In our experiment, L = 7 mm presented the smallest pressure in the internal
mixing chamber p
c,
indicating that L = 7 mm provides the largest sucking force of fuel and has the best
performance. The performance may depend on the shock cell structure in the internal mixing chamber,
although we do not discuss it further in this paper. At least, an isentropic relation in compressible flow
gives us the fundamental estimation for the air-assisted atomizer. The flow through the secondary
nozzle will be influenced by the flow contraction in the throat area and mixing loss in the internal
mixing chamber. Practically, we have to take a discharge coefficient into consideration for the air flow
rate. This coefficient will be discussed in the following section.


Figure 7: The relationship between the air-supply pressure p
s
and the pressure in the internal mixing chamber p
c

0
2 0
4 0
6 0
8 0
1 0 0
1 2 0
0 2 0 0 4 0 0 6 0 0 8 0 0 1 0 0 0
p
c
k
P
a
p
s
k Pa
L =7 m m
L =1 0 m m
L =1 2 m m

4.2. Air Liquid Mass Flow Ratio
In the present system, fuel liquid is sucked due to the vacuum pressure, i.e. the ejector effect of
supplied air as discussed in the previous section. The liquid is led into the internal mixing chamber
from the water tank through the inlet port. The sucked water is mixed with air in the internal mixing
chamber. Then the mixture of air and water comes out through the second nozzle. The nozzle was
instituted at the same altitude of the water tank to cancel the gravitational influence. The air flow rate
was controlled with air supply pressure p
s
. Figure 8 shows an air mass flow rate obtained in the
experiment. The solid line shows the one obtained for an isentropic gas, which was calculated from
1
2
1
1
0
A p
e s
m
Air
RT
+
| |

=
|
+
\ .
(1)
where A
e
, p
s
, T
0
, R, and are the throat area of the primary nozzle, air-supply pressure, gas
temperature, gas constant and a specific heat ratio, respectively [12]. Here, T
0
= 288 K as the room
temperature, R= 287.1 J/kgK, and =1.4 for air. The isentropic gas flow gives a standard estimation of
the flow rate in dry test. Air mass flow rate,
Air m
-
is almost proportional to
s
p
. In this figure, the
experimental results for L=7, 10 and 12 mm are shown in order to see the influence of the volume of
expansion region. As seen, no difference was found in the experimental result between these
conditions. Therefore, the mass flow rate of the air is not affected by the cavity volume of the internal
mixing chamber. In reference to Figure 7, we found the length of the internal mixing chamber L had
effects on the vacuum pressure p
s
, but not on the air mass flow rate. These data suggest that a flow rate
of water (fuel) would depend on the length of the internal mixing chamber L.

Figure 8: Relationship between the air-supply pressure and the air mass flow rate. A solid line stands for the
one obtained for an isentropic gas flow.


A mass flow rate of water is plotted against the air-supply pressure in Figure 9. The water mass
flow rate was maximal at p
s
=650 kPa for L=7mm, and at p
s
=520 kPa for L=10 and 12 mm. Then, the
water mass flow rate turned to a decrease. This can be explained as follows. As shown in Figure 7, the
pressure in the internal mixing chamber slightly elevated for high pressures. This means a decrease of
the sucking force of the water. Moreover, usage of the water as a model of fuel caused the effects of
mass addition. These two factors, a decrease in the sucking force and the mass addition of water, were
considered to decrease the mass flow rate of the water for larger air-supply pressures. Therefore the
optimal condition of p
s
would be present near 650 kPa for the present nozzle.
If we assume that the total heat production of a combustor in micro gas turbine systems is 100
kW and take account of a fact that the low heating value of a refined palm oil is 38,206 kJ/kg [13], a
mass flow rate of fuel required for micro gas turbines can be estimated to be 2.62x10
-3
kg/s. Thus, if
we operate this nozzle at the pressure of about 650 kPa, the nozzle can produce a sufficient flow rate of
fuel to be used in micro gas turbine systems.

Figure 9: Water mass flow rate.

An air liquid mass flow ratio, ALR is an important factor in the nozzle performance and
combustion efficiency. ALR was calculated by taking a ratio of the mass flow rate of air shown in
Figure 8 to that of water in Figure 9. For example, when air mass flow rate at p
s
= 790 kPa for L=7mm
was 1.210
-3
kg/s and water mass flow rate is 3.310
-3
kg/s, ALR is 0.38. A variation in ALR against
the air-supply pressure p
s
is plotted in Figure 10. Overall, the ALR became larger with an increase in
the air-supply pressure. In looking at values of the ALR for each length of the internal mixing
chamber, we found that ALR varied from 0.18 to 0.32 for L=7mm, and from 0.25 to 0.59 for L=12
mm, meaning that ALR could be changed widely for longer internal mixing chamber. i.e. ALR could be
changed widely with changing L of internal mixing chamber. In the previous report which discussed
ALR of air-assisted atomizer, Suresh et al. [5] demonstrated that ALR could be controlled from 0.16 to
2.9, which is wider than our atomizer. Such a difference would be attributable to a difference in the
mechanism of the atomizer. Whereas theirs controlled both air- and water- supply pressures to attain
the wider range of ALR, we adjusted only the air-supply pressure. As a consequence, only the air
worked to carry the water forward in our atomizer. This is the reason why a range of the controllable
ALR was smaller in our atomizer. If we throttle the water flow, it will be able to obtain a high ALR
easily.
The discharge coefficient, C
d
was presented in Figure 11. Here, C
d
was defined as a ratio of the
actual air flow rate to the isentropic flow rate that was drawn with a solid line in Fig.8. In general, the
discharge coefficient varies from 0.6 to 0.9 depending on the pressure ratio of plenum and back

pressures, orifice thickness, and gas properties. The value increases with increasing the plenum
pressure. The present results show the similar tendency as found in the previous experiment [10]. A
jump in the data was observed at p
s
=210 kPa that corresponds to a choking region, indicating a
sensitive change in ALR at this pressure condition. This jump was probably attributable to transonic
flow instability within the internal mixing chamber. These data suggested that in order to achieve a
stable operation, we should avoid operating the atomizer at around this pressure.

Figure 10: Air liquid mass flow ratio.

0.0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0 200 400 600 800 1000
A
L
R
p
s
kPa (abs)
L=7mm
L=10mm
L=12mm

Figure 11: Discharge coefficient.

0.77
0.78
0.79
0.80
0.81
0.82
0.83
0.84
0 200 400 600 800 1000
C
d
p
s
kPa(abs)
L=7mm
L=10mm
L=12mm

4.3. Spray Patternation
The whole spray images are shown in Figure12. As seen, the spray formed a solid cone pattern for all
pressure conditions. Although it was difficult to quantify the penetration depth of the spray, the spray
reached at least 400 mm from the exit of the atomizer.
The spray angle was calculated from Figure 12. The edge lines as an envelope of spray zone
were detected with image processing software and its angle was measured. Figure 13 shows the spray
angle as a function of air supply pressure, p
s
. It was found that the spray angle remained almost
constant, although it slightly increased with the elevation in the air supply pressure.

In comparison to usual atomizers, the present atomizer has a large length-to-diameter ratio,
L
2
/D
2
= 4 for the secondary nozzle. Therefore, the spray angle is relatively smaller than the usual
atomizers. In addition, the spray angle remained almost the same even though the air-supply pressure
p
s
increased. Thus, the present atomizer could stably produce the spray with an almost constant angle.
These factors are important for a stable operation of micro gas turbine systems [14].

Figure 12: Spray images at various air supply pressures, p
s

p
s
=170kPa p
s
= 310 kPa p
s
= 520 kPa p
s
= 650 kPa p
s
= 790 kPa

Figure 13: Effects of the air-supply pressure on the spray angle.

0
5
10
15
20
25
0 200 400 600 800 1000
S
p
r
a
y
a
n
g
l
e
(
d
e
g
r
e
e
)
p
s
kPa
L=7 mm
L=10mm
L=12 mm

4.4. Flow Characteristics near Nozzle
The liquid is ejected from the secondary nozzle and the disintegration progresses through the
interaction with surrounding gas and by its own instability. As a result, the liquid breaks up into
droplets. In usual atomizers, the formation of a spray begins with the detaching of droplets from the
outer surface of a continuous liquid core which extends from the orifice of the injection nozzle. Here,
the detaching of the liquid core into ligaments or large droplet is called primary breakup [15], which
involves the action of forces internal to the liquid jet. The liquid ligaments and large droplets further
break up into small droplets due to the interactions between the liquid and ambient gas or droplet
collisions. The succeeding process of such further break-up is called secondary breakup

[15,16]. The
near nozzle region, where the volume fraction of the liquid is usually larger than that of the ambient
gas is called the dense spray region[15]. In contrast, the downstream region where the volume fraction
of the liquid is relatively low is called the dilute spray region[15]. Hereafter, these two regions are
inspected by the flow visualization.

As mentioned in section II, the air-assisted atomizer with the internal mixing chamber induces
the primary break-up within the mixing chamber. Figure 14 shows the jet flow in the vicinity of the
nozzle for three pressure conditions. At p
s
= 170 kPa, water jet maintained its integrity for a longer
distance from the nozzle before breaking up (see Figure 14(a)). The liquid phase broke up promptly
into large ligaments, and large non-spherical droplets were observed. As p
s
increased, the initial
filaments become shorter and the filament broke up into droplets near the nozzle, as shown in Figure
14(b). A further increase in the supplied air pressure induced prompt atomization as seen in Figure
14(c). The image showed densely existing particles; yet they were not spherical. It should be noted that
no core region was found in any pressure conditions.
The formation of non-spherical droplets in the downstream of the atomizer could be attributed
to two factors [17,18,19]; (i) droplet deformation and breakup resulting from the interactions between
the liquid and the gas, i.e. aerodynamic forces, and (ii) interactions between the droplets, i.e. droplet
collision. Faeth et al [15] addressed the importance of the structure of the near region in the properties
of breakup of droplets. They noted that when the atomized flow was sparse, effects of the interaction
between droplets would be small. In addition, according to Hiharaha and Kawahashi [18], when the
Weber number of droplets is smaller than the critical Weber number, atomized droplets do not break
up. Instead, they only vibrate with changing their shape while moving [16]. This flow condition will be
discussed simply in the last section.

Figure 14: Shadowgraphs at nozzle exit for air flow rates

(a) p
s
=170 kPa (b) p
s
=520 kPa (c) p
s
=790 kPa

4.5. Flow Characteristics Downstream
The flow properties in the downstream illustrated in Figure 15 are discussed in this section. In the
spray studies [20], droplet trajectories in the Lagrangian reference frame, are probably one of the most
interesting quantities to be measured. To optimize an atomizer design, it is necessary to obtain spray
characteristics such as droplet size and velocity. Conventionally, high-speed photography has been
used for simultaneous measurements of droplet size and velocity (Lefebvre [1], Heywood [21]).
Recently, Batarseh et al. [22] have investigated the unsteady characteristics of the spray generated by
an air-blast swirl generator with high-speed video observation, phase Doppler/laser Doppler system,
and PIV system.
In our experiment, a frame straddling photography technique was employed to measure droplet
velocity used in particle tracking velocimetry. Successive images were acquired with a double-pulsed
laser. The droplet velocity can be then determined from the successive images by measuring a traveling
distance of each droplet and dividing it by a time interval (about 2 s) between the two digital images.
The direction of the velocity vector can also be directly determined from the image as an angle of flight
with respect to the central axis of spray. In this analysis, a spatial resolution was 12801024 pixel, and
the observation area was 2.2 mm 1.8 mm.
Figure 16 shows typical droplet velocities at 50 mm downstream from the nozzle exit for 170,
311 and 790 kPa. In this report, the droplet images at two different instants in time were coupled
manually because of sparseness of droplet number density. The coordinate of the coupled droplets was

measured pixel by pixel to approximately calculate their velocity. The typical droplets with several 10
m in diameter was picked up and analyzed. The range of droplet velocities was found to be
approximately ranged from 8 to 60 m/s. If we know the water speed, we can estimate the air flow
speed. From the estimated water speed at nozzle exit and the air mass flow rate, we simply estimated
the air speed at the exit of the secondary nozzle. The arithmetic calculation gave that air speed was
approximately 42-210 m/s. Using these estimates, we found that the Weber number, We was ranged in
0.17 to 6.2, which is less than critical Weber number
16
, We=15. Therefore, small droplets with several
10 m in diameter flowed in a vibration mode. More precise analysis with PIV and CFD will be
reported in the future.

Figure 15: Observation area for the measurement of droplet velocity

Figure 16: Snapshots of droplets in the observation area

(a) p
s
=170 kPa (b) p
s
=311 kPa (c) p
s
=790 kPa

Figure 17: Velocity vectors of water droplets

(a) p
s
=170 kPa (b) p
s
=311 kPa (c) p
s
=790 kPa

5. Conclusions
Air-assisted atomizer with internal mixing chamber for micro gas turbine systems was developed. The
basic concept of the developed atomizer is the one that can be driven with a relatively low pressure,
because atomizers for micro gas turbine systems must be handy, and should not require large facilities
such as large compressors. Distilled water was used as test liquid instead of the fuel in the experiments.
Fuel liquid was lead to the internal mixing chamber by a vacuum pressure generated by the air-supply
pressure. The function of the space of internal mixing chamber was tested by examining three different
lengths of the internal mixing chamber. The obtained conclusions were summarized as below.
The results revealed that the developed air-assisted atomizer had a capability to inject the test
liquid at a flow rate from 1.410
-3
to 3.310
-3
kg/s at the supplied air pressure from 170 to 790 kPa in
absolute. The air and fuel feeding performance with the present atomizer showed the sufficient flow
rate and ALR for the combustion of micro gas turbine systems as an onsite electric power generator.
ALR was 0.18 to 0.58 for all experimental conditions. Thus, it was confirmed that we can control ALR
by throttling the water flow rate. The flow of spray was stable for the air-supply pressures above the
critical flow condition where the transonic jet was generated in the internal mixing chamber. The spray
solidity was investigated from spray images obtained at various air-supply pressures. Although the
spray cone angle increased 13 to 20 degrees as the air-supply pressure became larger, it can be
regarded to remain almost constant. The solid cone spray with the penetration depth of at least 400 mm
was observed for all conditions, a water jet did not show the core flow near the nozzle in spite of a fact
that the air-supply pressure was low. Therefore, it was speculated the primary breakup completed in the
internal mixing chamber. In conclusion, we found that the interaction between a liquid and a subsonic
or supersonic jet promoted a prompt atomization effectively in the present atomizer.

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European Journal of Scientific Research

ISSN 1450-216X Vol.84 No.4 (2012), pp.507-521

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