SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “droplets”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

SourceResearch connectionFrom yearThrough year

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 127 records · Page 7

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

NASA NTRS1987

Image processing system to analyze droplet distributions in sprays

An image processing system was developed which automatically analyzes the size distributions in fuel spray video images. Images are generated by using pulsed laser light to freeze droplet motion in the spray sample volume under study. This coherent illumination source produces images which contain droplet diffraction patterns representing the droplets degree of focus. The analysis is performed by extracting feature data describing droplet diffraction patterns in the images. This allows the system to select droplets from image anomalies and measure only those droplets considered in focus. Unique features of the system are the totally automated analysis and droplet feature measurement from the grayscale image. The feature extraction and image restoration algorithms used in the system are described. Preliminary performance data is also given for two experiments. One experiment gives a comparison between a synthesized distribution measured manually and automatically. The second experiment compares a real spray distribution measured using current methods against the automatic system.

Bertollini, Gary P.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Heat transfer studies on the liquid droplet radiator

This paper examines radiation transfer in the droplet sheet of a liquid droplet radiator including non-isotropic scattering by the droplets. Non-isotropic scattering becomes significant for small droplets (diameter less than 0.1 mm) and for low emissivity liquids. For droplets with an emittance of 0.1 and for a droplet sheet optical depth or 5, the radiated power varies by about 12 percent, depending on whether scattering is predominantly forward or backward. An experimental measurement of the power emitted by a cylindrical cloud of heated droplets of silicone fluid is also reported. The measured cloud emissivity correlates, within experimental error, with the analytical model.

Mattick, A. T.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Supercritical microgravity droplet vaporization

Supercritical droplet vaporization is an important issue in many combustion systems, such as liquid fueled rockets and compression-ignition (diesel) engines. In order to study the details of droplet behavior at these conditions, an experiment was designed to provide a gas phase environment which is above the critical pressure and critical temperature of a single liquid droplet. In general, the droplet begins as a cold droplet in the hot, high pressure environment. In order to eliminate disruptions to the droplet by convective motion in the gas, forced and natural convection gas motion are required to be small. Implementation of this requirement for forced convection is straightforward, while reduction of natural convection is achieved by reduction in the g-level for the experiment. The resulting experiment consists of a rig which can stably position a droplet without restraint in a high-pressure, high temperature gas field in microgravity. The microgravity field is currently achieved by dropping the device in the NASA Lewis 2.2 second drop tower. The performance of the experimental device and results to date are presented.

Hartfield, J.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Combustion of liquid fuel droplets in supercritical conditions

A comprehensive analysis of liquid-fuel droplet combustion in both sub- and super-critical environments has been conducted. The formulation is based on the complete conservation equations for both gas and liquid phases, and accommodates finite-rate chemical kinetics and a full treatment of liquid-vapor phase equilibrium at the droplet surface. The governing equations and the associated interface boundary conditions are solved numerically using a fully coupled, implicit scheme with the dual time-stepping integration technique. The model is capable of treating the entire droplet history, including the transition from the subcritical to the supercritical state. As a specific example, the combustion of n-pentane fuel droplets in air is studied for pressures of 5-140 atm. Results indicate that the ambient gas pressure exerts significant control of droplet gasification and burning processes through its influences on the fluid transport, gas/liquid interface thermodynamics, and chemical reactions. The droplet gasification rate increases progressively with pressure. However, the data for the overall burnout time exhibits a significant variation near the critical burning pressure, mainly as a result of reduced mass-diffusion rate and latent heat of vaporization with increased pressure. The influence of droplet size on the burning characteristics is also noted.

Shuen, J. S.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Vaporization and combustion of fuel droplets at supercritical conditions

Vaporization and combustion liquid-fuel droplets in both sub- and super-critical environments have been examined. The formulation is based on the complete conservation equations for both gas and liquid phases, and accommodates finite-rate chemical kinetics and a full treatment of liquid-vapor phase equilibrium at the droplet surface. The governing equations and the associated interface boundary conditions are solved numerically using a fully coupled, implicit scheme with the dual time-stepping integration technique. The model is capable of treating the entire droplet history, including the transition from the subcritical to the supercritical state. As a specific example, the combustion of n-pentane fuel droplets in air is studied for pressures of 5-140 atm. In addition, the dynamic responses of droplet vaporization and combustion to ambient-pressure oscillations are investigated. Results indicate that the droplet gasification and burning mechanisms depend greatly on the ambient pressure. In particular, a rapid enlargement of the vaporization and combustion responses occurs when the droplet surface reaches its critical point, mainly due to the strong variations of latent heat of vaporization and thermophysical properties at the critical state.

Yang, Vigor↗

NASA NTRS1991

Soot formation during combustion of unsupported methanol/toluene mixture droplets in microgravity

Results are reported of an experimental study tracing the influence of liquid composition on soot formation and the burning rate of a droplet composed of a binary miscible mixture of liquids. The mixture components represented a highly sooting fuel, toluene, and a nonsooting fuel, methanol. The toluene concentration in methanol was shown to dramatically influence flame luminosity and soot production. Neither burning rates nor a propensity for flame extinction appeared to be significantly affected by toluene mixture fractions. Five-percent toluene mixture droplets behaved like pure methanol droplets in terms of burning rate, lack of flame luminosity, and extinction. Increasing the toluene concentration in the droplets to 25 percent increased flame luminosity, yet no visible soot agglomerates were observed. The 50-percent-mixture droplets burned with highly luminous flames and large amounts of soot agglomerates collecting inside the flame. All the mixture droplets showed burning rates similar to those of pure methanol and likewise exhibited flame extinction before complete droplet vaporization.

Jackson, G. S.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Combustion of unsupported methanol/dodecanol mixture droplets at low gravity

Experiments are reported on the combustion of free or unsupported methanol/dodecanol mixture droplets in a reduced gravity environment. The experiments were conducted in a drop tower. The Grashof number (based on drop diameter) in the moving frame of reference was on the order of 10 exp -5 for the period of droplet burning. Combustion of the mixture droplets was characterized by a multi-stage process indicative of diffusion controlled burning. The flame was not visible during the first stage because of the lighting used, but was visible (and spherical) in the final stage. The results suggested that the mixture droplets did not extinguish. By contrast, methanol droplets consistently extinguished. Microexplosions were not observed for mixtures with initial concentrations of equal volumes of methanol and dodecanol. However, most of the droplets containing initially 75 percent (by volume) of methanol exploded. The initiation of microexplosion, as defined by the occurrence of homogeneous nucleation within the droplet, is explained by comparing the calculated nonlinear variation of superheat limit with composition for a methanol/dodecanol mixture with the boiling point of dodecanol.

Yang, J. C.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Computational/experimental studies of isolated, single component droplet combustion

Isolated droplet combustion processes have been the subject of extensive experimental and theoretical investigations for nearly 40 years. The gross features of droplet burning are qualitatively embodied by simple theories and are relatively well understood. However, there remain significant aspects of droplet burning, particularly its dynamics, for which additional basic knowledge is needed for thorough interpretations and quantitative explanations of transient phenomena. Spherically-symmetric droplet combustion, which can only be approximated under conditions of both low Reynolds and Grashof numbers, represents the simplest geometrical configuration in which to study the coupled chemical/transport processes inherent within non-premixed flames. The research summarized here, concerns recent results on isolated, single component, droplet combustion under microgravity conditions, a program pursued jointly with F.A. Williams of the University of California, San Diego. The overall program involves developing and applying experimental methods to study the burning of isolated, single component droplets, in various atmospheres, primarily at atmospheric pressure and below, in both drop towers and aboard space-based platforms such as the Space Shuttle or Space Station. Both computational methods and asymptotic methods, the latter pursued mainly at UCSD, are used in developing the experimental test matrix, in analyzing results, and for extending theoretical understanding. Methanol, and the normal alkanes, n-heptane, and n-decane, have been selected as test fuels to study time-dependent droplet burning phenomena. The following sections summarizes the Princeton efforts on this program, describe work in progress, and briefly delineate future research directions.

Dryer, Frederick L.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Generation of monodisperse droplets by spontaneous condensation of flow in nozzles

Submicron size monodisperse particles are of interest in many industrial and scientific applications. These include the manufacture of ceramic parts using fine ceramic particles, the production of thin films by deposition of ionized clusters, monodisperse seed particles for laser anemometry, and the study of size dependence of cluster chemical and physical properties. An inexpensive and relatively easy way to generate such particles is by utilizing the phenomenon of spontaneous condensation. The phenomenon occurs when the vapor or a mixture of a vapor and a noncondensing gas is expanded at a high expansion rate. The saturation line is crossed with the supercooled vapor behaving like a gas, until all of a sudden at the so called Wilson point, condensation occurs, resulting in a large number of relatively monodisperse droplets. The droplet size is a function of the expansion rate, inlet conditions, mass fraction of vapor, gas properties, etc. Spontaneous condensation of steam and water vapor and air mixture in a one dimensional nozzle was modeled and the resulting equations solved numerically. The droplet size distribution at the exit of various one dimensional nozzles and the flow characteristics such as pressure ratio, mean droplet radius, vapor and droplet temperatures, nucleation flux, supercooling, wetness, etc., along the axial distance were obtained. The numerical results compared very well with the available experimental data. The effect of inlet conditions, nozzle expansion rates, and vapor mass fractions on droplet mean radius, droplet size distribution, and pressure ratio were examined.

Lai, Der-Shaiun↗

NASA NTRS1996

Numerical Investigation of Two-Phase Flows With Charged Droplets in Electrostatic Field

A numerical method to solve two-phase turbulent flows with charged droplets in an electrostatic field is presented. The ensemble-averaged Navier-Stokes equations and the electrostatic potential equation are solved using a finite volume method. The transitional turbulence field is described using multiple-time-scale turbulence equations. The equations of motion of droplets are solved using a Lagrangian particle tracking scheme, and the inter-phase momentum exchange is described by the Particle-In-Cell scheme. The electrostatic force caused by an applied electrical potential is calculated using the electrostatic field obtained by solving a Laplacian equation and the force exerted by charged droplets is calculated using the Coulombic force equation. The method is applied to solve electro-hydrodynamic sprays. The calculated droplet velocity distributions for droplet dispersions occurring in a stagnant surrounding are in good agreement with the measured data. For droplet dispersions occurring in a two-phase flow, the droplet trajectories are influenced by aerodynamic forces, the Coulombic force, and the applied electrostatic potential field.

Kim, Sang-Wook↗

NASA NTRS1995

Hydrodynamic Stability of Multicomponent Droplet Gasification in Reduced Gravity

This investigation addresses the problem of hydrodynamic stability of a two-component droplet undergoing spherically-symmetrical gasification. The droplet components are assumed to have characteristic liquid species diffusion times that are large relative to characteristic droplet surface regression times. The problem is formulated as a linear stability analysis, with a goal of predicting when spherically-symmetric droplet gasification can be expected to be hydrodynamically unstable from surface-tension gradients acting along the surface of a droplet which result from perturbations. It is found that for the conditions assumed in this paper (quasisteady gas phase, no initial droplet temperature gradients, diffusion-dominated gasification), surface tension gradients do not play a role in the stability characteristics. In addition, all perturbations are predicted to decay such that droplets were hydrodynamically stable. Conditions are identified, however, that deserve more analysis as they may lead to hydrodynamic instabilities driven by capillary effects.

Aharon, I.↗

NASA NTRS1997

Development of a Device to Deploy Fluid Droplets in Microgravity

A free-floating droplet in microgravity is ideal for scientific observation since it is free of confounding factors such as wetting and nonsymmetrical heat transfer introduced by contact with surfaces. However, the technology to reliably deploy in microgravity has not yet been developed. In some recent fluid deployment experiments, droplets are either shaken off the dispenser or the dispenser is quickly retracted from the droplet. These solutions impart random residual motion to deployed droplet, which can be undesirable for certain investigations. In the present study, two new types of droplet injectors were built and tested. Testing of the droplet injectors consisted of neutral buoyancy tank tests, 5-sec drop tower tests at the NASA Lewis Zero Gravity Facility, and DC-9 tests. One type, the concentric injector, worked well in the neutral buoyancy tank but did not do well in low-gravity. However, it appeared that it makes a fine apparatus for constructing bubbles in low-gravity conditions. The other type, the T-injector, showed the most promise for future development. In both neutral buoyancy and DC-9 tests, water droplets were formed and deployed with some control and repeatability, although in low-gravity the residual velocities were higher than desirable. Based on our observations, further refinements are suggested for future development work.

Robinson, David W.↗

NASA NTRS2001

Experiments and Model Development for the Investigation of Sooting and Radiation Effects in Microgravity Droplet Combustion

Today, despite efforts to develop and utilize natural gas and renewable energy sources, nearly 97% of the energy used for transportation is derived from combustion of liquid fuels, principally derived from petroleum. While society continues to rely on liquid petroleum-based fuels as a major energy source in spite of their finite supply, it is of paramount importance to maximize the efficiency and minimize the environmental impact of the devices that burn these fuels. The development of improved energy conversion systems, having higher efficiencies and lower emissions, is central to meeting both local and regional air quality standards. This development requires improvements in computational design tools for applied energy conversion systems, which in turn requires more robust sub-model components for combustion chemistry, transport, energy transport (including radiation), and pollutant emissions (soot formation and burnout). The study of isolated droplet burning as a unidimensional, time dependent model diffusion flame system facilitates extensions of these mechanisms to include fuel molecular sizes and pollutants typical of conventional and alternative liquid fuels used in the transportation sector. Because of the simplified geometry, sub-model components from the most detailed to those reduced to sizes compatible for use in multi-dimensional, time dependent applied models can be developed, compared and validated against experimental diffusion flame processes, and tested against one another. Based on observations in microgravity experiments on droplet combustion, it appears that the formation and lingering presence of soot within the fuel-rich region of isolated droplets can modify the burning rate, flame structure and extinction, soot aerosol properties, and the effective thermophysical properties. These observations led to the belief that perhaps one of the most important outstanding contributions of microgravity droplet combustion is the observation that in the absence of asymmetrical forced and natural convection, a soot shell is formed between the droplet surface and the flame, exerting an influence on the droplet combustion response far greater than previously recognized. The effects of soot on droplet burning parameters, including burning rate, soot shell dynamics, flame structure, and extinction phenomena provide significant testing parameters for studying the structure and coupling of soot models with other sub-model components.

Choi, Mun Young↗

NASA NTRS2002

Bi-Component Droplet Combustion Experiment Designed

The combustion of liquid fuels is a major source of energy in the world today, and the majority of these fuels are burned in the form of a spray. The research at the NASA Glenn Research Center in droplet combustion has the overall goal of providing a better understanding of spray combustion by studying the smallest element in a spray, the single droplet. The Bi-Component Droplet Combustion Experiment (BCDCE) extends the work at Glenn from pure, or single-component, fuels to an idealized liquid fuel composed of two completely miscible components. The project is a collaborative effort between Glenn and Prof. B.D. Shaw of the University of California, Davis. The BCDCE project is planned to fly onboard the International Space Station in the Multi-User Droplet Combustion Apparatus. The unique feature of this experiment is that it will be the first droplet combustion experiment to perform a detailed characterization of the flow inside a liquid fuel droplet. The experiment will use a relatively new technique called Digital Particle Imaging Velocimetry (DPIV) to characterize the liquid flow. In this technique, very small (approx. 5-mm diameter) particles are dispersed throughout a liquid droplet. These particles are illuminated by a thin laser sheet. Images of the particle motion are recorded on a computer, which then tracks the motion of the particles to determine the flow characteristics.

Dietrich, Daniel L.↗

NASA NTRS2016

Modeling Droplet Heat and Mass Transfer during Spray Bar Pressure Control of the Multipurpose Hydrogen Test Bed (MHTB) Tank in Normal Gravity

A CFD model for simulating pressure control in cryogenic storage tanks through the injection of a subcooled liquid into the ullage is presented and applied to the 1g MHTB spray bar cooling experiments. An Eulerian-Lagrangian approach is utilized to track the spray droplets and capture the interaction between the discrete droplets and the continuous ullage phase. The spray model is coupled with the VOF model by performing particle tracking in the ullage, removing particles from the ullage when they reach the interface, and then adding their contributions to the liquid. A new model for calculating the droplet-ullage heat and mass transfer is developed. In this model, a droplet is allowed to warm up to the saturation temperature corresponding to the ullage vapor pressure, after which it evaporates while remaining at the saturation temperature. The droplet model is validated against the results of the MHTB spray-bar cooling experiments with 50% and 90% tank fill ratios. The predictions of the present T-sat based model are compared with those of a previously developed kinetic-based droplet mass transfer model. The predictions of the two models regarding the evolving tank pressure and temperature distributions, as well as the droplets' trajectories and temperatures, are examined and compared in detail. Finally, the ullage pressure and local vapor and liquid temperature evolutions are validated against the corresponding data provided by the MHTB spray bar mixing experiment.

mass transfer↗

NASA NTRS2019

Investigation of Transient Gas Phase Column Density Due to Droplet Evaporation

A NASA robotic refueling mission experiment on board the International Space Station (ISS) was designed to repeatedly transfer simulated cryogenic propellant between two dewars. After each metered transfer, the cryogen was to be vented overboard via sublimation or evaporation. ISS payload providers must conduct analyses to demonstrate that any planned gaseous venting generate no more than a certain level of material that may interfere with optical measurements from other payloads that may be located nearby. This requirement is expressed in terms of a maximum column number density (CND). For the experiment under consideration, fluid droplets likely would accompany any such vapor. Earlier related studies led to development of analytical expressions for column density along general paths for a number of practical cases under steady conditions, including droplet evaporation. These expressions are not appropriate for rapid evaporation of small droplets however, since the droplets cannot sustain mass flow rates consistent with steady conditions. In this work, analytical expressions are developed for estimating column density near a rapidly evaporating droplet along general paths. The influence for instantaneous evaporation is created first as a limiting case, where it is found the peak value occurs at the time it takes a wave of vapor to reach the closest point along the optical path traveling at its most probable thermal speed. Next, the case for finite-period evaporation is evaluated for constant conditions. Compared to the instantaneous case, peak column density occurs shortly after droplet extinction, but at a lower intensity. A new mathematical function is discovered that solves the integrals associated with this case. Finally, ways to account for droplet motion and changes in evaporation rate with size and temperature are discussed in this framework.

Woronowicz, M. S.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Evaluating Combined Lidar and Polarimeter Measurements of Cloud Top Parameters (Extinction, Scattering Cross Sections, and Droplet Number Density, Liquid Water Content)

We present a new method to derive profiles of extinction from a lidar which is then combined with polarimeter measurements to derive cloud droplet number density (CDNC) in the tops of warm clouds. The method employs polarization-sensitive elastic backscatter lidar measurements to estimate attenuation of the lidar signal within the cloud and polarimeter estimates of cloud droplet size distributions. The measurements used for this demonstration are from NASA Langley Research Center’s High Spectral Resolution Lidar – Generation 2 (HSRL-2) and NASA GISS’s Research Scanning Polarimeter (RSP). The measurements were acquired on NASA’s ACTIVATE mission, during which the instruments were deployed in a down-looking mode from a high-altitude aircraft, which flew in coordination with a low-flying aircraft acquiring coincident in situ measurements of cloud droplet size and number. The high vertical (1.25 m) and horizontal (~50 m) sampling resolution of the HSRL-2 data enabled retrievals of single-scattering extinction profiles to within ~2.5 optical depths of cloud top. Another key feature of the method was the well-calibrated measurement of backscatter at cloud top due to using the HSRL technique. The RSP retrievals of cloud droplet effective radius and variance were accomplished using the “cloud-bow” technique. Overall, the technique provides extinction profile estimates for the top 2.5 optical depths of water clouds that can be used to estimate the cloud droplet number density in various types of warm clouds. The mean extinction values at cloud top (0-1 optical depth) are compared against cloud drop size and number concentration acquired from wing-mounted probes (e.g., DMT Cloud Droplet Probe - CDP, SPEC Fast Cloud Droplet Probe FCDP, and SPEC 2D Stereo Probe - 2DS) that were deployed on the low-flying aircraft. Comparisons between the effective radius and variance from the polarimeter, lidar ratio (extinction to backscatter) from the lidar and polarimeter, and LWC are also presented. All measurements were acquired over the Western North Atlantic over 3 years from 2020 to 2022.

lidar↗

NASA NTRS2016

A Burke-Schumann Analysis of Dual-Flame Structure Supported by a Burning Droplet

Droplet combustion experiments carried out onboard the International Space Station (ISS), using pure fuels and fuel mixtures, have shown that quasi-steady burning can be sustained by a non-traditional flame configuration, namely a "cool flame" burning in the "partial-burning" regime where both fuel and oxygen leak through the low-temperature controlled flame-sheet. Recent experiments involving large, bi-component fuel (n-decane and hexanol, 50/50 by volume) droplets at elevated pressures show that the visible, hot flame becomes extremely weak while the burning rate remains relatively high, suggesting the possibility of simultaneous presence of "cool" and "hot" flames of roughly equal importance. The radiant output from these bi-component droplets is relatively high and cannot be accounted for only by the presence of a visible hot-flame. In this analysis we explore the theoretical possibility of a dual-flame structure, where one flame lies close to the droplet surface called the "cool-flame," and other farther away from the droplet surface, termed the "hot-flame." A Burke-Schumann analysis of this dual-structure seems to indicate such flame structures are possible over a narrow range of initial conditions. Theoretical results can be compared against available experimental data for pure and bi-component fuel droplet combustion to test how realistic the model may be.

cool flames↗