Spray systems often operate under extreme ambient conditions like high pressure, which can have a significant influence on important spray phenomena. One of these phenomena is binary drop collisions. Such collisions, depending on the relative velocity and the impact parameter (eccentricity of the collision), can lead to drop bouncing, coalescence or breakup. This experimental and computational study is focused on the description of the phenomenon of drop bouncing, which is caused by a thin gas layer preventing the drops coalescence. To identify the main influencing parameters of this phenomenon, experiments on binary drop collisions are performed in a pressure chamber. This experimental system allows us to investigate the effect of an ambient pressure (namely the density and viscosity of the surrounding gas) on the bouncing/coalescence threshold.
Keywords drop collision, breakup/coalescence, multiphase flow
IntroductionUnderstanding the collisions of drops is of interest for many fields of application. They play an important role in raindrop formation [1,2] and in the modeling of fuel combustion [3,4]. Systematic experimental studies visualizing binary drop collisions provide information allowing to construct regime maps of the collision outcomes [5,6,7]. The mechanisms of bouncing, coalescence, stretching separation, reflexive separation, and shattering are observed. These mechanisms are determined by the kinetic and geometrical parameters of the collision, as well as the properties of the drop liquids and the surrounding gas. The main kinetic and geometrical parameters are defined in Figure 1, where D1 and D2 are the drop diameters and V is the relative drop velocity. B is the distance of closest approach of the drop centers, measured orthogonal to V at the instance of the collision. Dimensional analysis reveals that the collision Weber number We = V 2 D1ρ/σ, the Ohnesorge number Oh = µ/ σD1ρ, the impact parameter X = 2B/(D1 + D2) and the drop size ratio ∆D = D1/D2 determine the outcome of the collision, if the medium ambient to the colliding drops is not varied.