Atomization performance of an atomizer with internal impingement

This paper describes the atomization performance of a newly designed atomizer with internal impinging mechanisms inside the atomizer. The spray drop size distribution was measured by a Malvern RT-Sizer. Results show that the Sauter mean diameter below 10 μm has been achieved with GLR of 0.14. The minimum mean drop size can be lowered to 4.0μm under a test condition of the liquid pressure and gas pressure of 2.5 bar and 3.5 bar, respectively. This test suggests that extra fine atomization on the liquid phase can be achieved under low pressure conditions using this particular atomizer. Such performance cannot be easily achieved with the conventional nozzle design. Results also show that better atomization performance can be achieved by increasing the internal impinging angle and the orifice diameter. An empirical formula of SMD, in terms of operating conditions and nozzle length scale is also presented in this paper.