Atomization and Sprays, Vol.30, No.5, 331-350, 2020
EXPLORATION OF WATER JETS IN SUPERSONIC CROSSFLOW USING X-RAY DIAGNOSTICS
Near-field structures of pure- and aerated-liquid jets injected into Mach 2 crossflow environments were experimentally investigated at the 7-BM beamline of the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory using high-speed shadowgraph imaging, high-speed x-ray imaging, and pathlength-integrated x-ray fluorescence. Liquid was flush injected into a blowdown supersonic wind tunnel. Test section top and side windows were fitted with a polycarbonate plate for high x-ray transmittance. An axisymmetric aerated-liquid injector was fitted with an exchangeable nozzle adaptor to generate a liquid jet. Water and nitrogen, the gas used for aerated-liquid jets, were doped with specially selected dopants to facilitate x-ray measurements. Liquid column structures for a pure-liquid jet, typically masked by dense droplet clouds in a supersonic crossflow environment, were visualized with the present x-ray imaging setup. Surface-wave formation, movement, and transformation on the column windward surface of the pure-liquid jet, along with column deformation and breakup processes, were qualitatively characterized. We measured time-averaged line-of-sight (LOS) liquid mass distributions within the liquid jet near fields. Cross-sectional liquid column contours of pure-liquid jets at various deformation stages were reconstructed from LOS liquid mass distributions. The pure-liquid jet deformed liquid column reached a maximum width of 1.47 times the orifice diameter before exhibiting rapid mass removal. We also observed the plume-crossing phenomenon in the aerated-liquid jet.