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Droplet bag formation in turbulent airflows

Kaitao Tang, Thomas A. A. Adcock, and Wouter Mostert

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Phys. Rev. Fluids 10, 033604 – Published 19 March, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevFluids.10.033604

Abstract

We present numerical simulations investigating the evolution of liquid droplets into baglike structures in turbulent airflows. The droplet bag breakup problem is of significance for many multiphase processes in scientific and engineering applications. Turbulent fluctuations are introduced synthetically into a mean flow, and the droplet is inserted when the air-phase turbulence reaches a statistically stationary state. The morphological evolution of the droplet under different turbulence configurations is retrieved and analyzed in comparison with laminar aerobreakup results. While the detailed evolution history of individual droplets varies widely between different realizations of the turbulent flow, common dynamic and morphological evolution patterns are observed. The presence of turbulence is found to enhance the drag coefficient of the droplet as it flattens. At late times, the droplet becomes tilted and increasingly corrugated under strong turbulence intensity. We quantify these phenomena and discuss their possible governing mechanisms associated with turbulence intermittency. Lastly, the influences of liquid-gas viscosity ratio are examined and the implications of air-phase turbulence on the later bag film breakup process are discussed.

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Phys. Rev. Fluids 10, 033604– Published 19 March, 2025
  • Received 13 November 2024
  • Accepted 21 February 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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