Atomization and Sprays, Vol.7, No.5, 531-547, 1997
Atomization of thin liquid films by droplet impact
Spray wall impingement results in liquid film deposition on walls, especially when the surface temperature is below the liquid saturation temperature. Once formed, the liquid film may exhibit a secondary breakup due to the impact of the succeeding droplets of the spray. In this study, a thin liquid film was deposited on a surface which was heated to near the saturation temperature of the liquid at ambient pressure. The film was impinged by parcels of uniform-size droplets which included one or two droplets. The results show that the liquid film stability is a function of the number of impinging droplets in a parcel, the relative arrival time of the impinging droplets, the droplet Weber number, and the liquid film thickness. Impinging parcels of two droplets at We = 200 on a liquid film at different film thicknesses resulted in three different modes of film breakup; each mode was associated with a different liquid film thickness range. When the liquid film thickness was about the same as the droplet diameter, parcel impingement resulted in a maximum probability of film atomization.