Study on Breakup of Conical Liquid Sheet under Varying Flow Conditions

An experimental study on the breakup of a conical liquid sheet from a pressure swirl atomizer was conducted by using a Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) system. The variation of wavelength, wave speed and amplitude of wave versus liquid pressure was obtained. The results indicate that the cone half angle increases with liquid pressure. The stripped half wavelength liquid fragment seems to break into a series of drops immediately and no obvious contraction from liquid fragment to ligament is seen. The recorded images also show that both short and long wavelength waves exist simultaneously, and influence the breakup of the conical liquid sheet. The result of this study is useful for the purpose of developing and verifying the atomization model of spray produced by a pressure swirl atomizer.