Date of Award

2015

Degree Type

Thesis

Department

Mechanical Engineering

First Advisor

Ibrahim, Mounir

Subject Headings

Engineering Fluid Dynamics Mechanical Engineering atomization spray angles hot wire anemometry CFD simulation computational fluid dynamics atomizers atomizer pressure swirl atomizer spray cone spray nozzle nozzles sprays measurement spray angle cone air core hot wire anemometers

Abstract

A newly developed production test stand for measuring the spray angle of a pressure swirl atomizer was constructed and used to measure a product line of these pressure swirl atomizers -- the macrospray atomizer. This new test stand, utilizing constant temperature hot wire anemometers, captures the spray angle data based on the voltage drop the hot wire probes see as they traverse the spray cone of the atomizer and as fluid droplets impinge upon the wire. Datasets acquired from the experiments are compared and correlated with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation data. In addition, angles obtained from another type of spray characterization technique, the spray angle device, are also compared to see how closely CFD can predict the angle as captured by this new stand and how reliable and independent of human error it is. Another nozzle with a pressure swirl atomizer, the conventional atomizer, is also simulated to compare its agreement with experimental values obtained from the spray angle device. Finally, the datasets are compared to understand if the CFD results, when compared to the two spray characterization techniques used in this thesis for both the nozzle and atomizer can be utilized to assist in future atomizer designs. For the macrospray atomizer, it was found through the experiments that the hot wire stand predicts the spray angle more accurately within 10 error. The spray angle device measured the spray angles within an error of 29 while the CFD introduced more error into the spray angle measurement obtained, within 7 to 93 . The conventional atomizer was found to have an error up to 18 with CFD results and up to 28 with the manual spray angle device

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