Transport of Droplets in Sprays

Sharleen Harper
Supervised by: Prof Robert McKibbin & Prof. Graeme Wake
( )( )

/
1
t
x ix x
e u v t u x

+ =
( )( )

/
1
t
y iy y
e u v t u y

+ =
( )( ) h e g v gt z
t
iz
+ + + =


/
1
d
m

3
=
( ) g u u v
y x T
= , ,
r
x
z
Ground
Droplet Source
o o
90 90
(b) Droplets Fired into a Tailwind
Key Points
The graph on the left is the side on view of the trajectories
of the droplets fired at each angle of inclination.
The graph on the right is the density of deposition (mass
landing per metre per second) along the ground.
There is a patch near the edge where the particles land
much closer together the density there is significantly
greater.
There is a significant wet patch near the edge.
Ongoing Work
I am working towards finding the density of droplets along the ground in any wind conditions (i.e. crosswinds etc), and extending
the droplet source to three dimensions. I have also begun some initial investigations into droplet evaporation.
Reference
Reist, P. C. (1993). Aerosol Science and Technology. (2nd ed.).
New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc.
(a) Droplets Fired into Still Air
Acknowledgements
Thank you to both my supervisors, and also to John-Paul Praat of
Lincoln Ventures Ltd, George Zabkiewicz and Alison Forster of
Plant Protection Chemisry NZ, for their support and contribution of
information.
Some examples
(1)
Key Points
The terminal velocity of a droplet depends on its diameter
and is given by
Droplets reach their terminal velocity very quickly the
droplet is at terminal velocity for almost all of its flight.
Density of Deposition Along the Ground
For a point source of droplets what is the density of
droplets landing along the ground?
First this question has been simplified to 2 dimensions as in
the diagram (1) to the right the environment is a vertical
plane, and the ground is an infinite line. The droplet source
sprays out into the vertical plane at all angles of inclination
In this situation there are three possible cases: spraying into
still air, spraying into a tailwind, and spraying into a
headwind.
Abstract
I aim to produce a model for droplet motion in the atmosphere that will help to minimize spray drift.
The model should include the effect of release height, direction, and initial speed of droplets, as well as air movement,
temperature and humidity. Studies suggest that drift is a problem for droplets in the diameter range 10m to 150m,
as smaller droplets evaporate and larger droplets settle on the ground or are captured by foliage. Spraying usually
takes place in wind speeds of less than 5m/s. So this is the range I have focused on the other parameters vary with
different spray applications, so the model should be able to handle this.
Initially I have assumed that the droplets are pure water, this will be adjusted as my research progresses.
Individual Droplet Trajectories
The equations for the trajectory of an individual droplet in 3 dimensions come from summing the forces acting on the droplet, and
are as in Reist (1993):
t is time, u = (u
x
,u
y
) is the wind velocity, v
i
= (v
ix
,v
iy
) is the initial droplet velocity, h is the release height, and x, y, z are the
coordinates of the position of the droplet. is related to the air resistance, it has a unit of seconds and is given by
where m is the mass of the droplet, d is the droplet diameter, and is the viscosity of the surrounding fluid (air).
The graph above and to the right shows an example of the trajectories of droplets with different diameters. This particular example
is for still air.
Author contact email: s.a.harper@massey.ac.nz