Oil Droplet Motion Considering Breakup in an Aeroengine Bearing Chamber

Abstract

Oil droplets can break up during flight and form many secondary droplets in an aero-engine bearing chamber due to aerodynamic drag forces. The motion properties of secondary droplets have significant influence on the two-phase oil/air flow phenomena in bearing chambers. In this work, oil droplet trajectories and velocities are developed by accounting for in-flight breakup. The droplet motion is modelled using a Lagrangian tracking method, and the trajectories and velocities are calculated by numerical integration of the oil particle momentum equation with forth-order Runge-Kutta scheme. The trajectories and velocities change abruptly at the breakup location, compared with unconsidering breakup. Subsequently, the effects of operating conditions on oil droplet motions are discussed. The numerical results show that the influence of breakup on oil droplet trajectory and velocity are considered necessarily when simulating two-phase oil/air flows in bearing chambers.