<div>The atomization of jets and droplets undergoing breakup in high-speed flows has been experimentally measured and theoretically modeled. Systems for producing individual droplet breakup and full jet breakup were designed, and a wide range of diagnostics were developed and adapted to measure the results with reduced uncertainty.</div><div><br></div><div>A detailed methodology for investigating high-speed sprays in the Purdue Experimental Turbine Aerothermal Lab is presented. Optical diagnostic techniques were carefully selected and optimized for the test section geometries and flow features, such that images could be collected at high frequencies of 20 kHz with high resolutions. Developed image processing routines are outlined to demonstrate how backlit imaging with specialized lenses allowed for more accurate spray depth measurements in supersonic conditions, which were then used in regression modeling routines to derive empirical correlations that factored in test section geometry, flow conditions, and injector design. A Mie scattering imaging technique was used for quantitative analysis of the supersonic spray plume profile and measurement of the spray width. 20 kHz shadowgraphy provided sufficient gradients for analysis of the unsteadiness of the spray and surrounding supersonic flow at the point of injection. Droplet sizes and velocities were measured in subsonic conditions using digital in-line holography, in which recent advancements to the reconstruction algorithm were implemented to reduce out-of-plane measurement uncertainty, and phase Doppler particle analysis.</div><div><br></div><div>The breakup of a single drop undergoing multi-mode breakup was analytically characterized, with the proposal of a new breakup criterion in the Taylor analogy breakup model. Hill vortices within the drop were proposed as a new flow mechanism promoting multi-mode breakup. Product drop sizes from the ring breakup were predicted and compared with experimental results.</div>

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Un moyen d'accroître l'efficacité et de réduire la pollution dans les domaines du transport et de l'énergie consiste à concevoir des injecteurs de carburant produisant une meilleure atomisation. Au cours de cette thèse, des expériences ont été effectuées sur un injecteur airblast souvent utilisé dans les turbines à gaz. Pour réaliser ces expérimentations, un dispositif modèle en configuration annulaire a été créé afin d'étudier le cisaillement d'un film d'eau soumis à un écoulement d'air interne à forte vitesse. La technique d'imagerie rapide par ombroscopie a été utilisée pour analyser le développement du film liquide (fréquence et célérité des ondes) et l'atomisation de la nappe en sortie d'injecteur (modes de rupture). La modification des paramètres d'injection (vitesse des écoulements) a révélé un lien entre la topologie du film liquide et le régime d'atomisation primaire. Finalement, à titre exploratoire, l'influence de la géométrie de l'injecteur (longueur de préfilm) sur le mode d'atomisation primaire a également été mise en évidence / One way to increase efficiency and reduce pollution in the transportation and energy domain is designing fuel injectors with better atomization. In this thesis, experiments were performed on a prefilming airblast atomizer often used in gas turbines. For this purpose, a model device with a cylindrical configuration was created to study the shearing of a film of water subjected to an internal high speed air flow. High speed shadowgraphy technique was used to analyse the development of the liquid film (frequency and wave celerity) and the atomization of the sheet at the injector outlet (breakup mode). The modification of the injection parameters (velocity of flows) revealed a link between the topology of the liquid film and the primary atomization regime. Finally,the influence of the geometry of the injector (prefilming length) about the mode of primary atomization was also highlighted with an exploratory study

Drop impact on a surface has an effect on nearly every industry and this impact may have adverse effects if not controlled. Superhydrophobic (SH) surfaces have been created with the extreme ability to repel water. These surfaces exist in nature but may also be fabricated using modern techniques. This thesis explores heat transfer from these SH surfaces to drops impacting them. This thesis is devoted to increasing the breadth of knowledge of thermal atomization during drop impingement on superheated SH surfaces. When a water drop impinges vertically on a horizontal superheated surface, intense atomization can occur. The atomization is caused by rapid vapor generation at the surface and the corresponding formation and collapse of vapor bubble cavities. This thesis is divided into two main works, experimental quantification of thermal atomization and analytical prediction of vapor generation. An experimental exploration, comprising chapter 3 contains experimental work done on drop impingement on nanostructured surfaces. of this thesis, presents results of experiments meant to quantify the amount of thermal atomization during drop impingement on superheated superhydrophobic surfaces. Effects of time, surface temperature, and surface geometry are investigated. Superhydrophobic surface geometries explored in this work included post, rib, and carbon nanotube (CNT) structures. Each surface is characterized by its temperature jump length. It is shown that, in general, atomization intensity decreases with increasing temperature jump length. It is also shown that atomization is completely suppressed on surfaces with nanoscale surface features and high cavity fraction (e.g. CNT structures). This work also relates the effect of temperature jump length on the maximum atomization temperature and the maximum atomization time. Both quantities show a systematic relationship with temperature jump length. The analytical portion, comprising chapter 4 of this thesis, presents an analytical model used to predict the amount vapor generated during drop impingement on superheated SH surfaces. This vapor generation is then correlated to experimental values of atomization. Atomization is caused by vapor generation so their magnitudes are thought to be proportional. Two existing analytical models for drop contact area of impinging drops are combined to predict drop spread for all impact scenarios. An analytical model for heat flux is used to find heat transfer to impinging drops and mass flow rate of vapor generated from boiling.

Plasma centrifugal atomization is a method widely used in the production of spherical powders of metals and alloys with relatively low melting points. A novel plasma centrifugal atomization process suitable for high melting point materials (i.e. 3500 ᵒC and above) was developed by Metasphere Technology AB, currently Höganäs Sweden AB. In this process, feedstock material in the form of crushed powder with particle sizes in the range 400-1000 µm is fed into a rotating crucible and subsequently melted by the glow discharge of a plasmatron. Due to high rotational speeds, a melt film forms at the edge of the crucible and breaks into fine droplets that are ejected into the reactor chamber and solidified in a whirl of cold inert gases. Capability of the plasmatron to reach very high temperatures, combined with extremely rapid cooling of the ejected droplets, allow for the fabrication of fine powders of refractory alloys exhibiting metastable phases that cannot be obtained otherwise.  Oil drilling, ore processing and metal shaping applications, among other, require tool materials capable of withstanding harsh working conditions under heavy loads. Owing to their physical, chemical and mechanical properties, tungsten-carbon alloys are among the most suited materials for such applications. Melting followed by rapid solidification of tungsten-carbon mixtures with 3.9 wt.% C results in a biphasic structure composed of WC lamellae inserted in a W2C matrix, known as cast tungsten carbide (CTC). Due to the metastable nature of both phases present, CTC exhibits exceptional mechanical properties. CTC is mainly used as reinforcing dispersed phase in metal matrix composite hardfacing overlays, which are deposited by plasma transferred arc (PTA) welding or laser cladding onto steel tools. High-entropy alloys (HEAs) are defined as multi-component solid solutions with equimolar or near-equimolar concentration of all principal elements. Owing to their outstanding mechanical, corrosion, erosion, oxidation and radiation resistance properties compared to conventional alloys, HEAs are among the most suited materials for aerospace and nuclear applications. Several processing routes have allowed for laboratory-scale production of HEAs. Nevertheless, size and shape of bulk components that can be thus produced are largely limited. In a quest for up-scaling the processing of high-end bulk HEA components, plasma centrifugal atomization of pre-alloyed refractory HEA spherical powders suitable for additive manufacturing was envisaged. In this work, capabilities of the novel plasma centrifugal atomization for processing of refractory alloys into fine spherical powders have been evaluated based on two different material systems, namely CTC and a refractory HEA containing Ti, V, Zr, Nb, Mo, Hf, Ta, W. Challenges of local mechanical characterization of micron-sized powders have been addressed and a robust method for testing of individual particles has been developed. Mechanical properties such as hardness and fracture toughness of plasma atomized CTC powders have been extensively investigated and related to the corresponding thermal stories. Experimental results suggest significant straining of the crystal lattice in the case of as-atomized CTC, possibly due to extremely high cooling rates experienced by the solidifying particles. This has been ruled out the main reason for the outstanding mechanical properties of plasma atomized CTC compared to both spheroidized CTC and conventional cast &amp; crushed CTC. Effective stress relieve was possible upon heat treatment. Plasma atomization of the refractory HEA yielded similar results, where an extremely fine microstructure with no noticeable chemical segregation was obtained. Indentation hardness of this novel microstructure was found to be approximately 25% higher than that of similar alloys reported in literature. HEA powder thus produced was then consolidated into bulk HEAs with very simple geometries, proving that this powder can be further processed into components of more or less complexity for pre-defined applications.

Land-based turbine engines are currently used to burn heavy fuel oil (HFO), which is a lower cost fuel. HFO contains inorganic material that forms deposits on turbine blades reducing output and efficiency. Magnesium based additives are used to inhibit vanadium pentoxide deposition and reduce the corrosive nature of the gas and deposits in the hot gas path of the gas turbine. The focus of this study was to determine particle morphology and elemental composition of ash when firing HFO in an atmospheric combustor at various fuel injector atomization pressures. Prior to firing, the HFO was washed with water to remove sodium and potassium. A commercially available magnesium based additive was used to inhibit the vanadium in the HFO. Fuel was injected using an air-blast atomizer at air blast atomization gage pressures of 117, 186, and 255 kPa. Ash was collected from three locations downstream of combustion: immediately following combustion (pre-cyclone), from a cyclone separator (cyclone), and finally from a position located after the cyclone separator (post-cyclone). A Philips XL30 Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) provided images, weight percent of elements of the ash, and element maps. Images taken from the SEM clearly show two particle types: 1) hollow spherical particles, or cenospheres, and 2) submicron agglomerated spherical particles. The cenospheres contained high carbon concentrations and were found primarily in the cyclone and probe bag filter. Element maps show that cenospheres, regardless of size, predominately contain carbon, oxygen, and sulfur with lesser amounts of sodium, magnesium, aluminum, and silicon. Particles collected downstream of the cyclone were primarily sub-micron in size and inorganic in composition. It is postulated that the cenospheres are the result of incomplete combustion of fuel oil droplets while the submicron spheres are nucleated inorganic material that initially evaporated from the liquid droplets. Particle size analysis was performed for each sample location. As the injection pressure was increased; the pre-cyclone and cyclone locations had similar number mean diameters that would decrease with increasing pressure. The diameter of the post-cyclone location did not change significantly with increasing air atomization. While increasing atomization pressure decreased the carbon content of the ash at all measurement locations, the atomization had little influence on the inorganic composition of the particles. The fine condensed phase particles and the larger cenosphere particles both produced similar compositions of inorganic material.

To enhance mechanical and/or electrical properties of composite materials used in additive manufacturing, nanoparticles are often time deposited to form nanocomposite layers. To customize the mechanical and/or electrical properties, the thickness of such nanocomposite layers must be precisely controlled. A thickness model of filter cakes created through a spray assisted vacuum filtration is presented in this paper, to enable the development of advanced thickness controllers. The mass transfer dynamics in the spray atomization and vacuum filtration are studied for the mass of solid particles and mass of water in differential areas, and then the thickness of a filter cake is derived. A two-loop nonlinear constrained optimization approach is used to identify the unknown parameters in the model. Experiments involving depositing carbon nanofibers in a sheet of paper are used to measure the ability of the model to mimic the filtration process.

Electrospray is an atomization method subject to intense study recently due to its monodispersity and the wide size range of droplets it can produce, from nanometers to hundreds of micrometers. This thesis focuses on the numerical and theoretical modeling of the interaction of charged droplets from the single and multiplexed electrospray. We studied two typical scenarios: large area film depositions using multiplexed electrospray and fine pattern printings assisted by linear electrostatic quadrupole focusing. Due to the high computation power requirement in the unsteady n-body problem, graphical processing unit (GPU) which delivers 10 Tera flops in computation power is used to dramatically speed up the numerical simulation both efficiently and with low cost. For large area film deposition, both the spray profile and deposition number density are studied for different arrangements of electrospray and electrodes. Multiplexed electrospray with hexagonal nozzle configuration can not give us uniform deposition though it has the highest packing density. Uniform film deposition with variation < 5% in thickness was observed with the linear nozzle configuration combined with relative motion between ES source and deposition substrate. For fine pattern printing, linear quadrupole is used to focus the droplets in the radial direction while maintaining a constant driving field at the axial direction. Simulation shows that the linear quadrupole can focus the droplets to a resolution of a few nanometers quickly when the interdroplet separation is larger than a certain value. Resolution began to deteriorate drastically when the inter-droplet separation is smaller than that value. This study will shed light on using electrospray as a scalable nanomanufacturing approach.

This paper aims to study how varying crossflow burning temperatures from 1100 C to 1800 C affect the liquid droplet breakup, size distribution, and atomization of a liquid water jet injected into a vitiated crossflow. The LJIC injection mechanism was implemented using the high-pressure axially staged combustion facility at the University of Central Florida. The measurement devices used to gather particle data from the exhaust plume were the TSI Aerodynamic Particle Sizer (APS), which measures particles between 0.523 µm and 20 µm, and the Sensirion SPS30 (SPS30), which measures particles between 0.3 µm and 10 µm. Both measurement devices were placed 3 ft away from the choked exit. Table 3 shows that the 1800 C crossflow temperature behaved as predicted by having the largest particle distribution of 67.97% and the largest particle count of 19,301 at 0.523 µm. The 1100 C crossflow produced the second-largest normalized particle count of 66.69% and raw particle count of 20,209 at 0.523 µm. This result is contrary to the original hypothesis because it shows that the relationship between temperature and particle count is non-linear and that many other factors must be at play in the atomization process, such as the droplet distribution at the nano level. The SPS30 was used to compare the particle size distributions between a 1500 C and 1800 C crossflow. Acquiring number concentration data for particles up to 10 µm in size, the 1800 C crossflow had a distribution peak at 802.76416 N/cm3, and the 1500 C crossflow had a peak of 867.28272 N/cm3. For the 0.5 µm peak, The 1800 C had a 10 µm particle size distribution peak at 674.27.76416 N/cm3, and the 1500C crossflow had a peak of 730.501 N/cm3. The decreased number concentration from 1500 C to 1800 C case grants the water particles in the 1800 C crossflow increased surface area, which allows for increased heat exposure from the vitiated crossflow [7]. Despite some nonlinear particle count results, the highest crossflow temperature of 1800 C produces the best atomization results by reducing the total particle count and having the largest collection of particles at the lowest detectable particle size of 0.523 µm.

This study was regarding the waterjets in the water atomization process. This is because the understanding of the waterjets is not complete and with a greater understanding the production of metal powder could be improved. The waterjets were going to be categorized according to their wave function, size and distribution of the droplets and the three regimes that Höganäs had divided up the jets into was also analyzed. The three regimes depend on the jets characteristics and the regimes are the transparent, milky and the droplet jet. The purpose was to get a better understanding of the correlation between velocity, temperature, waves, size and distribution of the droplets in a 50 cm long waterjet. The method to enhance the understanding of this project was to first do theoretical solution with the help of fluid dynamics. Weber, Reynolds and Ohnesorge number were calculated and evaluated to get a better understanding of the waterjet. Secondly, experiments were conducted where a waterjet with different nozzles and temperatures was filmed with a highspeed camera and the videos were analyzed with the help of a software package called ImageJ. The results show the correlation between increasing temperature and decreasing droplet size and a less cohesive waterjet core. The conclusion from the study was that with the help of temperature one can help control the droplet size. / Denna studie angår vattenstrålar i en vattenatomiserings process vid tillverkning av metallpulver och en bättre förståelse skulle förbättra tillverkningen av metallpulver. Vattenstrålen skulle kartläggas enligt dess vågfunktion, storlek och spridning av dropparna och de tre regionerna som Höganäs har delat upp vattenstrålen i skulle analyseras. Regionerna är beroende av strålens karaktäristiska utseenden vid olika delare av vattenstrålen och är genomskinlig, mjölkig och dropp stråle. Syftet med studien var att få en bättre förståelse av sambandet mellan hastighet, temperatur, vågor, storlek och spridning av dropparna i en 50 cm lång vattenstråle. Metoden som användes för att öka förståelsen av vattenstrålen var först en teoretisk del med hjälp av fluidmekanik. Weber, Reynolds och Ohnesorge tal beräknades och utvärderades för att ge en teoretisk förståelse för vattenstrålen. Sedan utfördes vattenflödesexperiment, där vattenstrålen filmades med olika munstycken och temperaturer med en höghastighetskamera och videon analyserades med hjälp av mjukvaran kallad ImageJ. Resultaten visar ett samband mellan ökad temperatur och minskad droppstorlek och en mer uppbruten kärna av vattenstrålen. Slutsatsen från studien var att man med hjälp av temperaturen kan reglera droppstorleken.