Using Lasers To Scale Jet Disintegration

There are so many processes like propulsion, where fluid is injected in a supercritical thermodynamic conditions laden environment with fluid. However, under such situations, interaction and mixing dynamics do not work as they are supposed under their defined gas and liquid phases. More often than not, gas turbines, rocket engines, as well as oil burners experience difficult conditions that are ahead of critical conditions of their regular fuel, therefore, supercritical atomized sprays are used for coating tablets in the manufacturing process of medicines. Under both cases, one needs to have precise understanding of dynamics about how these fluids break up and disperse around. A good understanding can always help in fundamental improvements of the ways systems like these are built. 

 

A close study of jet disintegration, in specific, emphasizes on breaking up of fuel and then mixing it inside the combustion chamber of such propulsion devices. A team of researchers working at the University of Florida applied some spectroscopic diagnostics methods, in order to learn about the basics of sub as well as supercritical jet disintegrations. They recently submitted their reports. 

 

 

A researcher from the same university with proficiency in mechanical and aerospace engineering and also the lead author of this paper, Shaun DeSouza, adds, “The Planar Laser Induced Fluorescence (PLIF) technique and the process of correcting for absorption effects is a tool that is unique to the Combustion and Propulsion Laboratory. This method provides quantitative data for comparison with the qualitative data produced by the shadowgraph technique.” In order to attain the best quantitative data, this team did some 48 tests for jet jets injected through a single orifice in a chamber across a range of sub to supercritical pressure and temperature combinations. This study focused on the chamber-to-injectant density ratio effect over the disintegration of jet, these tests were run across a large range of ratios. The results showed precision of PLIF.