A Generalized Protocol for Computational Simulation of Spray Flows Including Primary Atomization

Using the theoretical result for primary atomization, we have developed a computational protocol for compact and efficient simulations of spray flows. Volume-of-fluid (VOF) is used to map out the pre-atomization liquid flow field. The velocity and liquid contour from VOF is input in the “quadratic formula” to determine the initial drop size, to furnish the initial conditions for the post-atomization discrete-particle simulations (DPS). This approach has worked quite well in pressure-atomized sprays with and without swirl, and in liquid jets in cross flows, as presented in previous ILASS papers and journals. It constitutes a general simulation framework, based on fundamental and validated fluid physics of spray atomization, and leads to a very efficient and compact computational scheme to simulate spray flows in complex geometries. In this paper, we will present application examples in various other spray geometries and discuss potential uses in practical devices and systems, so that the generalizability of the method is established. This approach is easy to implement, generalizable, and thus can be used in complex injection systems by first analysing the internal fluid motion and using it to advance the scheme to atomization and post-atomization states.