LIQUID ROCKET ATOMIZATION, AN INNOVATIVE NUMERICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL SIMULATION

THE WORK PROPOSED HERE CONSISTS OF A THEORETICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIVE EFFORT AIMED AT QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE UNDERSTANDING OF THE FLUID DYNAMICS OF INTERACTING LIQUID JETS AS OCCUR, FOR EXAMPLE, IN LIQUID-FUELED ROCKET ENGINES. THE THEORETICAL MODEL, BASED ON A VORTEX-DYNAMICS ALGORITHM,TAKES ADVANTAGE OF THE FACT THAT, IN MANY FLOWS, VORTICITY IS CONCENTRATED IN A SUB-DOMAIN OF THE FLOW FIELD WHICH IS CONSIDERABLY SMALLER THAN THE TOTAL DOMAIN. BY DISCRETIZINGTHE ACTUAL VORTICITY DISTRIBUTION INTO VORTEX ELEMENTS AND THEN FOLLOWING THE EVOLUTION OF THE VORTICITY FIELD, ONE MAY OBTAIN A COMPLETE FLOW DESCRIPTION LIMITED ONLY BY THE ACCURACY OF THE DISCRETIZATION. THIS MODEL, DEVELOPED AT UCI FOR THE INSTABILITY OF A PLANAR LIQUID JET, WILL BE EXTENDED DURING PHASE I TO INVESTIGATE THE DYNAMICS OF TWO CO-FLOWING SHEARING PLANAR LIQUID JETS, AND TWO IMPINGING OPPOSED PLANAR LIQUID JETS. THE EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH DURING PHASE I WILL FOCUS ON THE VALIDATION OF THE NUMERICAL MODEL WITH HOLOGRAPHIC DIAGNOSTICS. IN ADDITION, DATA WILL BE OBTAINED IN SEVERAL IMPINGING JET CONFIGURATIONS. THIS WORK, IF CARRIED THRU PHASE II WILL RESULT IN NUMERICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL TOOLS WHICH WILL LEAD TO MORE EFFICIENT ATOMIZERS, AND A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF ATOMIZATION AND MIXING.