THEORETICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFEC:T OF ELECTROSTATIC CHARGING ON TI-lE• BEHAVIOR OF LIQUID SPRAYS

Abstract

The phenomenon of liquid fuel dispersion has been studied in this thesis. The phenomenon is investigated from two perspectives. The first is the use of a superimposed electrostatic charge on a liquid spray, while the second is the effect of the geometry of the injection nozzle. Regarding the effect of electrostatic charging, both the experimental and computational approaches were• used. In the experimental work, a test rig was designed, manufactured and equipped with the necessary measuring instruments. The test rig consists of a single hole air assisted atomizer, liquid pressurization system, charging facility and two dimensional traverse mechanism. The phase Doppler particle analyzer was used for simultaneous measurements of spray droplet size and velocity. Also a CCD camera was used for identification of the changes in spray configuration due to charging. The effect of other operation parameters such as injection pressure and liquid viscosity were evaluated as their effect is added to the charging effect.