Atomization Improvement of a Liquid Jet with Wall Impingement and its Application to a Jet Engine Atomizer

In the present study, capability of improving the liquid atomization of a high-speed liquid jet by using wall impingement is explored, and its application to a jet engine atomize. is demonstrated. Water is injected from a thin nozzle. The liquid jet impinges on a wall positioned close to the nozzle exit, forming a liquid film. The liquid film velocity and the SMD were measured with PDA and LDSA, respectively. It was shown that the SMD of the droplets was determined by the liquid film velocity and impingement angle, regardless of the injection pressure or impingement wall diameter. When the liquid film velocity was smaller than 300m/s, a smaller SMD was obtained, compared with a simple free jet. This wall impingement technique was applied to a conventional air-blasting nozzle for jet engines. A real-size air-blasting burner was installed in a test rig in which three thin holes were made to accommodate liquid injection toward the intermediate ring, as an impingement wall. The air velocity was varied from 41 to 92m/s, and the liquid injection pressure was varied from 0.5 to 7.5 MPa. Combining wall impinging pressure atomization with gas-blasting produces remarkable improvement in atomization, which is contributed by the droplets produced in the pressure atomization mode. Comparison with the previous formulation for conventional gas-blasting atomization is also made, and the effectiveness of utilizing pressure atomization with wall impingement is shown.