Droplet evaporation in turbulent flows

Contents
Introduction
Heat and mass transfer rates from a
droplet
Effect in forced convective turbulent flow
Effect in zero-mean velocity turbulent flow

Concluding remarks
Main reference: Birouk M, Gkalp I, Current status of droplet
evaporation in turbulent flows, Progress in Energy and Combustion
Science 32 2006; 40823.

Introduction
Droplet evaporation involving heat and
mass transfer have significant engineering
applications
Sprays produced by disintegration of
liquids:
Turbulence in the liquid jet
Cavitation in nozzle
Interfacial forces

Introduction droplet
vaporization rate
Droplet vaporization rate is the controlling factor
for combustion
Depends primarily on:
Pressure, temperature and transport properties of the
gas medium, and whether it is stagnant, laminar or
turbulent
Temperature, volatility and size of droplets
Relative velocity between droplets and medium

Introduction droplet
vaporization rate
Practically studied by considering a single
droplet, which is the case for the far field region
of the spray
Extensive research carried out for laminar flow
around a droplet, but studies of evaporating
droplet in turbulent flow are rare
Experimentation difficulties
Usage of the Frssling correlation to relate to laminar
flows

Non-dimensional numbers
Sherwood number

Nusselt number

Schmidt number

Prandtl number

Some concepts from turbulence

Turbulence is a phenomenon which exhibits multiplicity of scales,

containing eddies of varying scales.
Much of the kinetic energy is in the large scale eddies.
However, the energy from the large scale eddies is cascaded to
small scale eddies by an inertial, inviscid mechanism. This produces
smaller and smaller eddies.
Eventually, when eddies as so small that molecular diffusion
becomes important, there is a viscous dissipation of energy. The
scale at which this happens is called the Kolmogorov length scale.
Turbulence integral length scale is the integral of the autocorrelation
function.

Early studies
[2]

Re based on drop diameter

Turbulence coefficient
Turbulence intensity

[2]
a

Galloway TR, Sage BH. Thermal and material transfer in turbulent gas streams
method of prediction for spheres. Int J Heat Mass Transfer 1964;7:28391.

Early studies

1a
1b

Early studies
Discrepancies existed between the different
published data
Most of these studies did not report detailed
information
The reported maximum turbulence intensities
seemed to be very low
The mean convective flow effect may overlap or
overshadow the turbulence effect at this low
level of turbulence.

Recent studies
Two categories:
I. Effect of turbulence on droplet evaporation in
forced convective turbulent flows
II. Effect of turbulence on droplet evaporation in
zero-mean velocity turbulent flows

Forced convective turbulent flows

Flow mean convective velocity and its fluctuating
component act jointly on transport rates
Fluctuating velocity component is always smaller
than the mean value of the flow velocity

Forced convective turbulent flows

Numerical studies
Numerical studies concerning turbulence effects
on droplet evaporation are almost inexistent.
Park and Farrell [3] attempted to develop a twodimensional numerical model to predict the
effects of turbulent flow on the vaporization rates
of single droplets.
Absolute increase in vaporization rates
decreased with increasing Re of the convective
flow.
[3]
single

Park J-K, Farrell PV. Numerical study of free-stream turbulence effects on a

droplet vaporization. SAE Technical Paper Series 901607. 1990.

Forced convective turbulent flows

Experimental studies

[4]

Gkalp et al. [4] examined effects of turbulence on vaporization of nheptane and n-decane
Red

100-450

Droplet diameter

1.5 mm

1.5-44 %

(Integral length scale)/(Drop

diameter)

1-7

Vaporization of n-heptane droplets insensitive to turbulence, but at

the same value of I, turbulence influenced n-decane
Turbulence enhanced the mass transfer of droplets only at low
values of Dav (Damkhler number)
Gkalp I, Chauveau C, Simon O, Chesneau X. Mass transfer from liquid fuel
droplets in turbulent flow. Combust Flame 1992;89:28698.

Forced convective turbulent flows

Experimental studies

Forced convective turbulent flows

Experimental studies

Hiromitsu and Kawagachi [5] studied the effects of turbulence on

droplets of paraffin hydrocarbons in a hot ambient environment
(323-423 K)
Turbulence effect is more pronounced for less volatile liquids
When flow temperature exceeds liquid boiling temperature, the
influence of turbulence can no longer be explained by the
Damkhler number as suggested by Gkalp et al. [4]
Dav useful only for liquid droplets evaporating in low-temperature
environments, and is given by:

[5] Hiromitsu N, Kawaguchi O. Influence of flow turbulence on the evaporation rate of a

suspended droplet in a hot air flow. Heat TransferJapan Res 1995;24(8):689700.

Forced convective turbulent flows

Experimental studies

Wu J-S, Hsu K-H, Kuo P-M, Sheen H-J. Evaporation model of a single hydrocarbon fuel droplet due to
ambient turbulence at intermediate Reynolds numbers. Int J Heat Mass Transfer 2003;46(24):47415.

Zero-mean velocity turbulent flows

Previously, both mean flow velocity (U) and
fluctuating component (u) were included
Separate the effects of (pure) turbulence from
mean convective effects

Few experimental studies and no numerical

attempts to study the effects of pure turbulence

Zero-mean velocity turbulent flows

Ohta et al. [7] developed an apparatus to produce 3D
turbulent flow with zero mean velocity.
1 mm diameter, iso-octane fuel drplet suspended on a
quartz fiber
Found that turbulence intensity enhances the droplet
vaporization rate.
Birouk and Gkalps [8] correlation:

[7]
liquid
[8]

Ohta Y, Shimoyama K, Ohigashi S. Vaporization and combustion of single

fuel droplets in turbulent environment. Bull JSME 1975;18:4756.
Birouk M, Gkalp I. New correlation for turbulent mass transfer from liquid
droplets. Int J Heat Mass Transfer, 2002;45:3745.

Zero-mean velocity turbulent flows

Zero-mean velocity turbulent flows

Using

Using

Approximating 16/9 as 2,

and

Ratio of turbulent integral and Kolmogorov length scales

Zero-mean velocity turbulent flows

Using

simplifies to

Zero-mean velocity turbulent flows

Zero-mean velocity turbulent flows

The proposed correlation for predicting droplet
evaporation rates seems to be promising
However, the use is limited only to when:
droplet velocity is equal to ambient gas mean velocity,
so that only the fluctuating component of velocity
causes vaporization
the interactions between the droplets are negligible

The present correlation validated only for

ambient pressures and temperatures

Concluding remarks

Turbulence effects has been studied in both flow scenarios:

Forced convective flow with weak to moderate turbulence intensities
High-turbulence intensity with zero mean-mean velocity

Literature shows three types of correlations:

Frssling type of correlation
Gkalp et al. and Wu et al. type not valid for high temperatures
Birouk-Gkalp type correlation where droplets are subjected only to u

Further,
Additional experiments at high temperatures and wider range of Re
and turbulent integral length scale.
Experiments at high pressures:
Reduction of diffusion coefficient of fuel vapor, decrease in kinematic viscosity
Vanishing of droplet latent heat and surface forces, resulting in explosive
vaporization

References
1. Birouk M, Gkalp I, Current status of droplet evaporation in turbulent flows, Progress
in Energy and Combustion Science 32 2006; 40823.
2. Galloway TR, Sage BH. Thermal and material transfer in turbulent gas streamsa
method of prediction for spheres. Int J Heat Mass Transfer 1964;7:28391.
3. Park J-K, Farrell PV. Numerical study of free-stream turbulence effects on a single
droplet vaporization. SAE Technical Paper Series 901607 1990.
4. Gkalp I, Chauveau C, Simon O, Chesneau X. Mass transfer from liquid fuel droplets
in turbulent flow. Combust Flame 1992;89:28698.
5. Hiromitsu N, Kawaguchi O. Influence of flow turbulence on the evaporation rate of a
suspended droplet in a hot air flow. Heat TransferJapan Res 1995;24(8):689700.
6. Wu J-S, Hsu K-H, Kuo P-M, Sheen H-J. Evaporation model of a single hydrocarbon
fuel droplet due to ambient turbulence at intermediate Reynolds numbers. Int J Heat
Mass Transfer 2003;46(24):47415.
7. Ohta Y, Shimoyama K, Ohigashi S. Vaporization and combustion of single liquid fuel
droplets in turbulent environment. Bull JSME 1975;18:4756.
8. Birouk M, Go kalp I. New correlation for turbulent mass transfer from liquid droplets.
Int J Heat Mass Transfer 2002;45:3745.

Thank you