Experimental and Numerical Investigation on the Evaporation of Shear-Driven Multicomponent Liquid Wall Films

Abstract

The presented work is concerned with two-phase flows similar to those in prefilming airblast atomizers and combustors employing film vaporization. Correlations for the multicomponent mixture properties and models for the calculations of the multicomponent evaporation were implemented in a well tested elliptic finite-volume code GAP-2D (S. Wittig et al., 1992, “Motion and Evaporation of Shear-Driven Liquid Films in Turbulent Gas,” ASME J. Eng. Gas Turbines Power 114, pp. 395–400) utilizing time-averaged quantities, k,ε turbulence model, wall functions, and curve-linear coordinates in the gas phase, adiabatic or diabatic conditions at the film plate, partially turbulent velocity profile, uniform temperature, and a rapid mixing approach in the wavy film. This new code GAP-2K was tested for stability, precision, and grid independence of the results by applying it to a turbulent hot air flow over a two-component liquid film, a mixture of water and ethanol in different concentrations. Both simulations and experiments were carried out over a wide range of inlet conditions, such as inlet pressure (1–2.6 bar), inlet temperature (298–573 K), inlet air velocity (30–120 m/s), initial liquid flow rate (0.3–1.2 cm2/s), and initial ethanol concentration (20–75 percent mass). Profiles of temperature, gas velocity, and concentration of the evaporating component normal to the film, and the development of the film temperature, the static pressure, the liquid flow rate, and the liquid compound along the film plate have been measured and compared with the simulation, showing a good match.