Atomization and Sprays, Vol.8, No.1, 63-81, 1998
Numerical study of the effects of gas temperature fluctuation on a turbulent evaporating spray
Computational study of a turbulent evaporating spray was conducted using a Eulerian-Lagrangian hybrid model. Eulerian computation of the turbulent gas phase consists of the second-moment closure for the momentum equations and the heat-flux transport closure for the energy equation. Lagrangian computation of the droplet phase consists of an anisotropic droplet dispersion model for the motion of droplets in turbulent gas flow. Complete initial conditions from experimental measurements were used to investigate the effects of gas temperature fluctuation on droplet evaporation. Numerical results for the droplet phase obtained by including and excluding gas temperature fluctuation in the droplet Lagrangian equations were compared with each other, together with the experimental measurements. It was found that the inclusion of the gas temperature fluctuation has a strong effect on the vaporization of individual droplets, but has a negligible effect on global spray properties of ensemble-averaged droplet properties such as the velocity, diameter, and mass flux.