Axis-switching and breakup of low-speed elliptic liquid jets

Theoretical and experimental investigations are conducted to analyze the instability of a low-speed liquid jet emerging from an elliptic nozzle. The complexity of viscous free surface flow analysis for an asymmetric geometry is simplified using an approach based on the Cosserat theory (also called director theory) which reduces the exact three-dimensional equations to a system depending only on time and on a single spatial variable. This work is mainly focused on the spatial instability analysis to examine the key characteristics of an elliptic jet such as jet profile, axis-switching and breakup length. In the experimental part, both natural (free) and excited (forced) breakup behaviors are studied. In the natural breakup, the effects of nozzle’s ellipticity and length to diameter ratio are examined. In the forced breakup case, disturbances are applied to the jet, by modulating the jet exit velocity using a piezoelectric actuator with given sinusoidal perturbations. The spatial evolution of the jet shape is captured with a high speed camera. Liquid jet instability is studied for various nozzle geometries over a specific range of jet velocities and excitation frequencies. Results are compared with conventional circular nozzles which can be considered as a special case of an elliptic jet.