Abstract:
This document describes the development of a computational model to
study the movement and breakup _of droplets in turbulent
two-component flows. The aim is to produce a suitable model which
will be economical of computing resources and practical for
engineering applications. The application of particular interest
here is that of water droplets in fully developed turbulent pipe
flows of oil.
The computational method uses Vortex filaments to produce, in a
novel way, instantaneous fluctuating velocities within the flow
domain. The trajectory of a particle within this field is predicted
by integrating the theoretical law of motion for the particle.
In addition, the breakup of a fluid particle in the turbulent field
may be predicted using an empirical criterion formulated using data
obtained from a series of experiments. The tests were designed to
study the deformation and breakup of a single water droplet in oil
subjected to shear.
Wherever possible the results of each development stage of the model
were compared with work published in the literature.
