1

NPC-2013-Paper no.12011

EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF JET DISPERSION IN A CROSS

FLOW
By

Anubhav Sinha1*, Surya Prakash R2., B. N. Raghunandan2, R.V.

Ravikrishna1

1
Department of Mechanical Engineering
2
Department of Aerospace Engineering
Indian Institute of Science
Bangalore - 560012
*
Corresponding author: anubhav@mecheng.iisc.ernet.in

Introduction
Abstract
Jet in a cross flow is a
The present study focuses common type of configuration
on the jet break-up and spray used in many gas turbine
formation of a jet in a engine combustors, ramjets,
cross-flow configuration scramjets and afterburners.
under atmospheric conditions. The design of this
A water jet is subjected to configuration depends on the
air cross flow and the understanding of the spray
resulting spray structure is formation and droplet
studied. The cross flow air dispersion in the combustor.
velocity and jet momentum There is significant work
both are varied to obtain a reported on the cross flow
set of momentum ratios. configuration, both
Different regimes of breakup experimental and numerical,
are observed. Bag breakup is however, there seems to be
quantified in terms of bag lack of consensus on various
breakup frequency and is key parameters and their role
found to increase with both Q in jet breakup and droplets
and We. The penetration dispersion as is evident by
length of water jet is found the vast number of
to increase with Q. High correlations offered by
speed images have shown various research groups for
details about the various predicting spray trajectory
stages of bag breakup, such and penetration 1-4.
as inception, growth and Mashayek and Ashgriz5 have
rupture. presented an informative
review of various previous

1
 2

studies emphasising on the turbulent and non-turbulent

need for deeper insight into liquid jets in a cross flow.
the basic physics of the
problem. Rana and Hermann6 Experimental Set-up
have carried out a detailed
numerical study of jet in The experimental set up is
cross flow configuration and schematically shown in fig.
presented some very detailed 1. Compressed air is supplied
images of breakup structure to the test section to
and ligament formation. generate high air velocities
Lubarsky et al.7 have for the cross flow. The
investigated the effect of incoming air is controlled by
Weber number in cross flow a pressure regulator. Air
configuration. Sallam et al. 8 velocity in the test section
conducted experimental and is calibrated with the
computation studies on

Fig.1. Schematic of Experimental set up

 3

regulator outlet pressure and The cross flow air is made

pressure reading is used to uniform by using a honeycomb
achieve desired air velocity flow straightener; and to
in the test section. Water filter out large scale
is provided to the injector turbulent structures, wire
from a pressure vessel where meshes are used. The incoming
water is maintained under air to the test section is
high pressure from a Nitrogen first characterized to assess
cylinder. The amount of water the uniformity. PIV
supplied to the injector is measurements are obtained to
regulated by a needle valve ensure that the velocity
controlling the flow through profile in the injection
a liquid mass flow meter. plane is reasonably good for
The injector tip is 0.76 mm the present study. The
in diameter and L/D ratio is experiments are conducted at
kept 65.7 to ensure a fully various conditions with
developed flow inside the magnitudes of Q and We
injector so as to obtain a varying between 6-100 and 2-
smooth laminar jet entering 60 respectively. Also two
the test section. This was injectors were used with L/D
necessary to make sure that ratios of 2.0 and 66.
the disturbances leading to
breakup of liquid jet are Results and Discussions
caused by the interaction
between cross flow air and For a given orifice, the
the jet and not because of aerodynamic Weber number (We)
disturbances inherent in the which includes the cross
jet itself. stream mass flux and liquid
The test section is provided surface tension governs the
with glass walls from two breakup and atomization
sides which make it possible processes. Also, the liquid
to observe the jet from the to air momentum ratio (Q) is
transverse direction. A 500W the parameter that governs
halogen lamp is placed in the resistance offered by
front of one of the glass this liquid stream to the
windows to provide bright breakup process and the
backlight source for the deflection of the liquid mass
camera placed in front of the in the direction of the cross
opposite glass window. A high stream. For various
speed camera (Photron Fastcam combinations of these
SA5) is used for the numbers, it is seen that a
experiments. A small exposure change in any of the
time (1 µsec) is used to parameters has an effect on
ensure that the images are the jet breakup and the
instantaneous and the break- subsequent flow structures.
up features are clearly In accordance with the
visible. existing literature, the
 4

various regimes of breakup its own instability, termed

are observed and classified. as Rayleigh breakup, but is
Depending on the mechanism of accentuated by the influence
breakup, the regimes are of the cross flowing air
categorized into: stream. This is evident by
• Column breakup the wave formation on the
• Bag breakup limb although a minor effect
• Multi-mode breakup of the cross stream is seen
• Shear-breakup in terms of bending and
Column breakup may be nodule formation. For
observed for very low slightly larger magnitudes of
magnitudes of We and Q as We and Q, bag breakup mode is
shown in Fig 2. The liquid observed to take place as
column breaks up more due to shown in Fig 2. The influence

(a)Column breakup (b)Bag breakup

(c)Multimode breakup (d)Shear breakup

Fig.2. Regimes of breakup

 5

of cross flow begins to decrease in size of the bags

manifest more clearly, which that are formed with an
may be attributed to the increase in Q. The bag
higher relative velocity breakup frequency for the
between the liquid jet and cases involved in
the air stream. As the values experimentation where single
of We and Q are further bag breakup is observed, is
increased, multi-mode breakup tabulated in Table 1. High-
occurs, as seen in Fig. 2. speed sequences containing
Bag breakup may be observed not less than 100 images are
simultaneously with column analyzed to measure the
and surface breakup. At much average frequency of bag
greater magnitudes of Q and formation.
We, the breakup is dominated
by the shearing of the liquid We Q Bag breakup
column and hence called as frequency (Hz)
the shear breakup regime, as 6 68 250
seen in Fig 2. The bag 6 99 444
formation is observed and is 12.6 46 800
qualitatively analyzed for 12.6 78 1000
the size of the bag formed, 12.6 110 1333
number of bags formed and the Table 1: Variation of bag
frequency of bag formation. breakup frequency with We and
It is observed that for a Q for single bag breakup
given value of We, with cases
increasing value of Q, the
number of bags being formed Column breakup length can be
simultaneously increases and defined as the length of the
also the frequency of bag intact liquid jet from the
formation increases. It may point of injection till the
also be noted that a higher location where the liquid
magnitude of We also column starts to breakup or
drastically increases the bag manifests disintegration.
breakup frequencies. The Column breakup is identified
high-speed images for various in the current study as the
conditions are shown in location on the jet where the
Figure 3. It may be observed circular liquid column ceases
that, while Fig. 3(a) and to be intact. This generally
3(b) represent single bag tends to occur at the trough
breakup process, with an or the nodule of the wave
increase in magnitudes of We that develops on the liquid
and Q, Fig 3(c) and 3(d) show column. It is observed that
multiple events of bag the column breakup length
breakup. For the same increases with increasing
magnitude of We, between Fig liquid-to-air momentum ratio
3(c) and 3(d), it may be (Q). It may be observed in
noted that there is a Fig 3 that, for a given
 6

magnitude of We, the column increase the column breakup

breakup length increases with length. Figure 4 shows the
increasing Q. It is clearly steps involved in the bag
seen that the column breakup break up process and fig. 5
lengths in Fig 3(b) and 3(d) shows the multimode regime
are greater than those in where bag breakup and column
Fig. 3(a) and 3(c) instabilities can be seen
respectively. An increase in simultaneously. Figure 6
the magnitude of Q makes for shows the variation of
a stiffer liquid column with penetration with momentum
lesser influence from air ratio with We held constant
cross flow up to an extent, at 15. The increase in
and thus tends to penetration

a)Q=69 We=6 b) Q = 99 We=6

c) Q=78 We 13 d) Q=110 We=13

Fig.3. Bag breakup behavior seen for various combinations

of Q and We
 7

t = 0.0 t = 0.1 ms t = 0.2 ms t = 0.3 ms

Bag
Inception

Bag
Growth

Bag Rupture
Rim
Rupture

Fig.4. Bag formation and breakup

Column
Waves

Bag
Breakup
Bag
Breakup

Fig.5. Multimode cases zoomed in

 8

length is evident and this References

shows the effect of increase
of Q on penetration. 1. Wu, P.K., Kirkendall,
K.A., Fuller, R.P., and
Nejad, A.S., “Breakup
Processes of Liquid Jets in
Subsonic Crossflow”, Journal
of Propulsion and Power, 1997
2. Schetz, J.A., and Padhye,
A., “Penetration and Breakup
of Liquids in Subsonic
Airstreams”, AIAA Journal,
1977
3. Surya Prakash R., “Liquid
Jets in Cross Flow”, M.Sc.
Thesis, IISc, Bangalore, 2012
4. Wu, P.K., Kirkendall,
K.A., Fuller, R.P., and
Nejad, A.S., “Spray
Fig. 6. Efect of Q on Structures of Liquid Jets
Penetration length Atomized in Subsonic
Crossflows”, Journal of
Propulsion and Power, 1998
Conclusions and Future Work 5. Mashayek, A., and Ashgriz,
N., “Atomization of a Liquid
A study is undertaken to Jet in a Crossflow”, Handbook
investigate the effect of of Atomization and Sprays,
Weber number and momentum 2011
ratio on liquid jet breakup 6. Rana, S. and Hermann, M.,
and dispersion in a cross “Primary Atomization of a
flow of air. Various breakup Liquid Jet in Crossflow”,
mechanisms are observed. The Physics of Fluids, 2009
effect of We and Q is 7. Lubarsky, E., Reichel,
discussed on the bag break up J.R., Zinn, B.T. and McAmins,
characteristics. High speed R., “Spray in Crossflow:
images have shown details Dependence on Weber Number”,
about the various stages of Journal of Engineering for
bag breakup, such as Gas Turbine and Power, 2010
inception, growth and 8. Sallam, K.A., Ng, C.L.,
rupture. Further studies can and Sankarakrishnan, R.,
be planned to focus on higher “Breakup of Turbulent and
Weber number regimes and Non-Turbulent Liquid Jets in
conditions closer to the Gaseous Crossflow, AIAA, 2006
actual gas turbine involving
higher temperature and
pressure.