Effect of Large Amplitude Waves and Film Inertia on Mass Separation at a Sharp Corner

Abstract

The separation of a shear-driven thin liquid film from a sharp corner is studied in this paper. Partial or complete mass separation at a sharp corner is affected by two different mechanisms: liquid film inertia, which affects liquid mass separation through force imbalance at the sharp corner, and large amplitude waves (LAW) at the interface, which contributes to liquid instability at the corner. Experimental results for liquid Ref number that varies from 100 to 300 and mean film thickness from 130 to 290 μm show that both film inertia and LAW effects correlate to mass separation results. The results suggest that while both inertia of the film substrate and LAW effects enhance the mass separation, the correlations between LAW characteristics and mass separation results provide better insight into the onset of separation and the impact of the gas phase velocity on separation for the conditions studied.