Shamit Bakshi

It is known from recent studies that evaporation induces flow around a droplet at atmospheric conditions. This flow is visible even for slowly evaporating liquids like water. In the present study, we investigate the influence of the ambient gas on the evaporating droplet. We observe from the experiments that the rate of evaporation at atmospheric temperature and pressure decreases in a heavier ambient gas. The evaporation-induced flow in these gases for different liquids is measured using particle image velocimetry and found to be very different from each other. However, the width of the disturbed zone around the droplet is seen to be independent of the evaporating liquid and the size of the needle (for the range of needle diameters studied), and only depends on the ambient gas used.

A water drop impacting a superhydrophobic surface (SHS) rebounds completely with remarkable elasticity. For a given drop size, the time of contact on a flat SHS remains constant. However, recent studies show that the contact time can be reduced further by triggering an asymmetry in the hydrodynamics of impact. This can be achieved in different ways; an example being the impact on a cylindrical SHS with a curvature comparable to the drop. Here, the anisotropic flow generated from the tangential momentum and elliptical footprint of the drop before the crash leads to the formation of lobes. In the present work, we perform drop impact experiments on a bathtub-like SHS and show that the radial anisotropy can be triggered even in the absence of both the tangential momentum and non-circular footprint. This is shown to be a consequence of lamella deflection during the drop spreading. The reduction in contact time is quite clearly evident in this experimental regime.

Common rail direct injection (CRDI) system is a modern variant of direct injection diesel engine featuring higher fuel injection pressure and flexible injection scheduling which involves two or more pulses. Unlike a conventional diesel engine, the CRDI engine provides simultaneous reduction of oxides of nitrogen and smoke with an injection schedule that has optimized start of injection, fuel quantity in each injection pulse, and dwell periods between them. In this paper, the development of a multizone phenomenological model used for predicting combustion and emission characteristics of multiple injection in CRDI diesel engine is presented. The multizone spray configuration with their temperature and composition histories predicted on phenomenological spray growth and mixing considerations helps accurate prediction of engine combustion and emission (nitric oxide and soot) characteristics. The model predictions of combustion and emissions for multiple injection are validated with measured values over a wide range of speed and load conditions. The multizone and the two-zone model are compared and the reasons for better comparisons for the multizone model with experimental data are also explored.

An experimental investigation of cavitating structures in the near-wake region of a cylinder is presented. From high-speed imaging of this subcritical flow (Reynolds number of 64,000), it is found that inception of cavities occurs in the shear layer. At the developed cavitation condition, the cavities in the separated zone and the free shear layer merge. A distinct spanwise variation in cavitation activity is observed. The non-dimensionalized correlation length at inception varies from close to a non-cavitating value of about 3.5 to about 1 at developed cavitation. The non-dimensionalized length of formation, characterized by crossover of the free shear layer and the wake axis, increases from 1 to 1.8 as the cavitation number is reduced from 85% to 50% of the inception value. A frequency analysis of the cavity dynamics indicates that although the vortex shedding frequency is dominant in the shear layer, there are peaks corresponding to other frequencies in other flow regions. The presence of a sharp peak at 125 Hz, corresponding to a Strouhal number of 0.2, along with a range of frequencies, is also verified independently through measurement of fluctuating pressure at the cylinder surface.

In gasoline direct injection engines, fuel injector nozzle is one of the vital components that determine the efficiency of fuel atomization which controls combustion and emission. There is an increased focus on developing better nozzles by studying the internal flow behavior especially during the needle transient phase and at the end of injection phase. Multiphase flow characteristics involving cavitation and hydraulic flip are observed inside the nozzle during its operation. At the end of injection, fuel inside the nozzle sac and nozzle holes is purged with the gas from the engine cylinder. The efficiency of this purging process is critical to prevent the carbon deposit formation on the wall of nozzle holes and on the surface of the nozzle tip. In this article, a numerical method is presented to predict the internal nozzle flow during the needle movement and during the end of injection to predict the purging capacity of a gasoline direct injection nozzle. Needle motion is accomplished using a moving mesh method via a user-defined function. The numerical model is compared with the X-ray measurements from the literature. Based on the validated model, the study is extended to analyze various parameters like injection pressure, nozzle hole location, number of nozzle holes and the inlet rounding of the nozzle hole which affects the effectiveness of nozzle purging. Fuel wetting at the nozzle tip after the end of injection is also numerically modeled to evaluate the thickness profile of the thin liquid film.

Drop-surface interaction is predominant in nature as well as in many industrial applications. Superhydrophobic surfaces show potential for various applications as they show complete drop rebound. In a recent work, it has been reported that the drop lift-offtime on a superhydrophobic substrate could be further reduced by introducing a macro-ridge. The macro-ridge introduces asymmetry on the morphology of drop spreading and retraction on the surface. This changes the hydrodynamics of drop retraction and reduces the lift-offtime. Keeping practical applications in view, we decorate the surface with multiple ridges. The morphology of the hydrodynamic asymmetry is completely different for the drops impacting onto the tip of the ridges from those impacting onto the middle of the valley between the ridges. We show that the morphology forms the key to the lift-offtime. We also show that the outward flow from the ridge triggers a Laplace pressure driven de-wetting on the tip of the ridge, thus aiding the lift-offtime. At the end of this work, we propose a ridge to ridge separation that effectively reduces the lift-offtimes for impacts both at the tip of the ridge and offset from it.

In this paper, noniterative interface reconstruction algorithms for volume of fluid (VOF) method are presented. Analytical expressions are derived to determine the coefficients of the curve to achieve a noniterative reconstruction procedure. Static interface reconstruction tests of standard geometries like circle and ellipse are performed. The noniterative algorithm based on Piecewise Linear Interface Calculation from an earlier work is found to reconstruct the VOF value within machine tolerance. Two piecewise continuous algorithms are also proposed in this work, which ensures C0 continuity. The first algorithm, namely, Piecewise Continuous Linear Interface Calculation (PCLIC), uses piecewise continuous linear segments to approximate the interface. The second algorithm uses piecewise continuous quadratic curve and is named as Piecewise Continuous Quadratic Interface Calculation. PCLIC is seen to achieve machine tolerance in reconstructing the VOF value. Piecewise Continuous Quadratic Interface Calculation is found to give a more accurate estimate of the length of the interface than Piecewise Linear Interface Calculation and PCLIC. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An axi-symmetric computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model is developed to simulate molten tin atomization for producing metal powder. A pilot unit with a free-fall gas nozzle is also built to measure particle size distribution from experimental trials. The numerical results are compared with mass percentage and cumulative mass percentage of particle size distribution obtained from experimental sieve analysis of the sampled powder. The model includes two-way coupling of gas-metal interaction, secondary breakup of liquid metal droplets, and subsequent in-flight solidification in the whole atomization chamber. The powder particle size distribution is compared for a range of gas flow rates. The results of the simulation demonstrate the importance of two-way coupling and careful selection of turbulence and breakup models while predicting particle size distribution for the metal atomization process.

A simple computational model was created to predict the vaporization rates of droplets of urea-water-solution (UWS) evaporating in a hot air stream. A single-component evaporation model, which was based on Abramzon-Sirignano's vaporization model, was adapted to handle UWS droplets, and the governing equations were solved numerically in MATLAB®. The temperature and species concentrations within the droplet were assumed to be uniform, and various methods available in literature were employed to estimate important thermophysical properties such as saturation vapor pressures, partial pressures, vaporization enthalpy, and vapor diffusivities. The suitability and limitations of the computational model were assessed by comparing the results with experimental data on UWS droplets evaporating under forced convective conditions. The temperatures considered in this study ranged from 373 K to 673 K, and the corresponding relative air velocities were between 1.5 m/s and 4.3 m/s. The model was found to be able to capture the two-stage vaporization behavior of the UWS droplet (except crystallization, puffing and micro-explosion) with reasonable accuracy. While the first-stage vaporization rates, predicted by the model, were accurate to within 1.8% to 17.7%, the accuracies of the second-stage vaporization rates were significantly dependent on the methods used to estimate fluid properties such as the vapor pressures and the vaporization enthalpy.

The classical trade-off between NOx and soot emissions from conventional diesel engines has been a limiting factor in meeting ever stringent emission norms. The electronic control of fuel injection in diesel engines emerged as an important strategy for their simultaneous reduction. The high pressure multiple-injection in a common rail direct injection system has been promising in this regard. While, the effects of pilot injection or multiple pulses of CRDI injection schedule on simultaneous reduction of NOx and soot have been widely investigated and reported, the investigations concerning three and more injection pulses have been limited. In this paper, the ability of a predictive model, developed by the authors, in providing optimal multiple-injection schedule is demonstrated through parametric investigations. The effects of pilot and post fuel quantity and dwell between the injection pulses on NOx and soot emissions are discussed. The emission predictions from the model are corroborated with available measured data. The comparisons between predicted and available measured data show that while an optimum quantity of pilot fuel reduces NOx emission, the post injection fuel quantity and its dwell from main injection pulse lowers soot emission. © Copyright 2011 Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan, Inc. and SAE International.