Drop-in Alterna ve Avia on Fuel Simula on

Internship Report

Supervised by Yang Xiaoyi

Beihang University

Submi ed by Zhang Guowei

Student ID: 03758697

Submi ed on 26. May 2023

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 Abstract

Abstract
Alterna ve avia on fuel is a solu on for the increase in aircra emissions as the avia on industry grows.
Small fuel droplets with high velocity can make the combus on more e cient and reduce emissions.
Simula ons of Fischer-tropsch(FT) alterna ve fuel injected from a pressure swirl atomizer are conducted
by using ANSYS FLUENT. The objec ve is to inves gate how the di erent injec on pressures a ect the
spray characteris c of the FT fuel. SMD and velocity magnitude are two important spray characteris cs for
clean combus on and thus are researched in this ar cle. It is proved that the Euler-Lagrangian method
can precisely predict the atomiza on process. The LISA model and SSD model are used to simulate the
primary breakup process and secondary breakup process respec vely. It has been observed that SMD
decreases and velocity increase with the growth of the injec on pressure.

Keywords: Spray simula on, Alterna ve avia on fuel, Euler-Lagrangian method

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 Table of Contents

Table of Contents
1. Internship Report ..........................................................................................................6
1.1. Introduc on...........................................................................................................6
1.2. Methodology ........................................................................................................6
1.2.1. Spray models ........................................................................................................6
1.2.1.1. Primary breakup model....................................................................................................7
1.2.1.1.1. Film forma on ..............................................................................................................7
1.2.1.1.2. Sheet breakup and atomiza on ....................................................................................8
1.2.1.2. Secondary breakup model ...............................................................................................9
1.2.2. Geometry and grid details ....................................................................................9
1.2.3. Computa onal procedure ..................................................................................10
1.3. Result and Conclusion ..........................................................................................12
1.3.1. SMD and velocity magnitude distribu on ..........................................................12
1.3.2. Conclusion ..........................................................................................................12
2. Reference ....................................................................................................................14

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 List of Figures

List of Figures and Tables

Figure 1: Primary Breakup Process [7]. ......................................................................................7
Figure 2: Posi on of the injec on. ...........................................................................................10
Figure 3: Computa on domain. ...............................................................................................10
Figure 4: Par cle tracks colored by par cle diameter at 0.5MPa (a), 0.7MPa(b), and
0.9MPa(c). ...............................................................................................................................11
Figure 5: SMD and Maximum velocity for the following pressure 0.5MPa, 0.7MPa, and
0.9MPa.....................................................................................................................................12
Figure 6: Par cle tracks colored by par cle velocity magnitude at 0.5MPa (a), 0.7MPa(b), and
0.9MPa(c). ...............................................................................................................................13

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 List of Tables

List of Tables
Table 1: Proper es of FT fuel. ..................................................................................................11

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 Abbrevia ons

Abbrevia ons

FT = Fishcher-Tropsch fuel
SSD = Stochas c Secondary Droplet
LISA = Linear Instability Sheet Atomiza on
SMD = Sauter Mean Diameter
DPM = Discrete Phase Model
ρL = Density of the liquid
ρa = Density of the air
ρp = Density of the unit par cle
ρg = Density of the gas ow
μL = Liquid dynamic viscosity
σ= Liquid surface tension
ν= Kinema c viscosity
xi, j = Axial and radial coordinate
τji = Viscous stress tensor to the i− direc on
τk j = Viscous stress tensor to the j− direc on
gi = Gravita onal body force
P= Sta c pressure
T= Temperature
Cp = Heat capacity at constant pressure, volume
ST = Energy source term
Sn = Concentra on source term
Sm = Mass source term
Sp = Momentum source term
k= Thermal conduc vity
m·ef f = E ec ve mass ow rate of liquid
θ= Spray semi angle
Δp = Injec on pressure di eren al
U= Total velocity
u= Axial lm velocity component
urel = Droplet rela ve velocity
dL = Ligament diameter
d0 = Droplet diameter a er primary breakup
D(x) = Distribu on logarithmic func on
dinj = Nozzle exit ori ce diameter
Oh = Ohnesorge number
We = Weber number
Re = Reynolds number
r= Underaged droplet radius
t= Liquid sheet thickness at the nozzle ori ce
tbu = Droplet breakup me
ξ2 = Variance

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 Internship Report

1. Internship Report
1.1. Introduc on
The use of alterna ve fuels in avia on has led to some studies aimed at improving gas turbine
performance and reducing atmospheric pollutants. The accumula on of moving fuel droplets injected
from the injec on caused by the atomiza on process is called spray. Knowing the spray characteris cs of
alterna ve fuel before igni on can reduce fuel consump on and improve engine performance. However,
the tradi onal methods of observing the spray process are expensive and me-consuming. Simula on is
an important technique for solving sophis cated spray processes. The injector nozzle plays a major role in
the combus on chamber and its design characteris cs are in uencing the spray and combus on process
[1]. There are many di erent nozzles used in the aero-engines. Among them is the pressure swirl atomizer,
which is most widely used due to its simple structure and reliable performance. The spray process of
pressure swirl atomizer can be divided into two stages, primary breakup, and secondary breakup.
The primary breakup stage refers to the process where the liquid sheets rst break into liquid ligaments,
then liquid ligaments break into ini al droplets. Current studies consider surface disturbance waves as the
main cause of the breakup of the liquid sheet. Linear instability analysis theory is generally used to
inves gate the primary breakup of pressure swirl atomizers [2].
In the secondary breakup stage, the ini al droplets generated by the primary breakup break into smaller
droplets due to aerodynamic force, viscous force, and surface tension. The Stochas c Secondary Droplet
[3] model, considers secondary breakup as a discrete random walk event where the breakup probability is
independent of the size of the parent droplet and the child droplet size is determined by the Fokker-Planck
equa on.
The simula on will be performed in a Lagrangian reference frame using a discrete phase model with
Ansys Fluent. The interac on between the fuel phase and air phase is realized by using the two-way
momentum coupling method [4]. A simula on of alterna ve avia on fuel, which is FT, will be performed
at di erent pressure condi ons. SMD and velocity characteris cs are presented because they have a huge
impact on combus on performance. Small size and high-velocity droplets improve combus on e ciency
and reduce pollutant emissions.

1.2. Methodology
1.2.1. Spray models
The Euler-Lagrange approach with the Discrete Phase Model is inves gated in the Lagrange reference
frame and is used for this simula on [5]. The gas phase is treated as a con nuum by solving the Navier-
Stokes equa ons, while the dispersed phase is solved by tracking a large number of droplets through the
calculated ow eld. The dispersed phase exchanges momentum, mass, and energy with the con nuous
phase. The interac on between droplets is included as well.
The Navier-Stokes equa ons used in the present simula on involve con nuity equa ons, momentum
equa ons, and energy equa ons for compressible uids. They are respec vely given below [6].
The con nuity equa on:
∂ρ ∂(ρUi )
+ = Sm (1)
∂t ∂xj
The momentum equa on:
∂(Ui ) ∂(Ui ) 1 ∂P 1 ∂(τji )
∑ ∑ ρ xj
+ Uj =− + + gi + Sp (2)
∂t j
∂x j ρ ∂x i j
where τji - viscous stress tensor to the i− direc on. In the momentum equa on, the rst and second
terms on the right are the gradients of the normal and shear stress of the uid, and the third term is the
body force term.
The energy equa on:
∂(ρCpT ) ∂(ρCPT ) ∂ 2T ∂U ∂U
+ Uj =k − P i + τk j k + ST (3)
∂t ∂xj ∂xj ∂xj ∂xj ∂xj

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 Internship Report

where τk j - viscous stress tensor to the j− direc on. The rst term on the right side of the energy
equa on is conduc ve heat transfer with ‘k’ indica ng thermal conduc vity, neglec ng the in uence of
turbulence. The second and third terms are the product of expansion and viscous dissipa on, respec vely.

1.2.1.1. Primary breakup model

The interac on between the air and the sheet in the primary breakup is not well understood. It is
generally accepted that the surface disturbance waves cause the sheet to break up. The numerical primary
breakup model assumes that Kelvin-Helmholtz waves grow on the sheet and eventually break the liquid
sheets into ligaments. It is then assumed that the ligaments break up into droplets due to varicose
instability. The numerical model of the primary breakup is Linearized Instability Sheet Atomiza on (LISA),
which is divided into two stages:
1. Film forma on
2. Sheet breakup and atomiza on
Both parts of the model are described in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Primary Breakup Process [7].

1.2.1.1.1. Film formation

The sheet thickness at the nozzle exit, t, is related to the mass ow rate:
m· ef f = πρl u t (dinj − t) (4)
where dinj is the nozzle exit diameter, and m· ef f is the e ec ve mass ow rate, which is de ned by:
2π m·
m· ef f = (5)
Δφ
where m· is the mass ow rate, and Δφ is the di erence between the azimuthal stop angle and the
azimuthal start angle.
Δφ is found from:
Δφ = φstop − φstart (6)
u is the axial velocity of the liquid sheet at the nozzle exit, and it is related to the injec on pressure:
2Δp
U = kv (7)
ρl
where U is the total velocity of the liquid sheet at the nozzle exit, Δp is the injec on pressure, ρl is the

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 Internship Report

density of liquid fuel, k v and is the velocity coe cient, which is a func on of injector design and injec on
pressure.
u is found from:
u = U cos θ (8)
where θ is half cone angle?
k v is found from:
4m· ef f
[ 2Δp ]
ρl
k v = max 0.7, 2 (9)
π dinj ρl cos θ

1.2.1.1.2. Sheet breakup and atomization

Liquid sheets break up into ligaments due to disturbance waves. The disturbance waves result in
uctua ng velocity and pressure for both liquid fuel and gas medium. A spectrum of in nitesimal wavy
disturbances is imposed on the ini ally steady mo on of liquid sheets [7]:
η = η0 e ik x+ωt (10)
2π
where η0 is the ini al wave amplitude, k = is the wave number, and ω = ωr + i ωi is the complex
λ
growth rate. The most unstable disturbance has the largest value of ωr, denoted here by Ω, which is
responsible for sheet breakup.
The LISA model used the growth of sinuous waves on the liquid sheet:

[ ρl ]
1 σk 3
ωr = −2vl k 2 tanh(k h) + 4vl2 k 4 tanh2(k h) − Q 2U 2 k 2 − [tanh(k h) + Q] −QU 2 k 2 +
tanh (k h) + Q

(11)
For waves that are long compared with the sheet thickness, a mechanism of sheet disintegra on was
proposed by Dombrowski and Johns [8]. Ligaments are formed from the sheets breakup process once the
unstable waves reach a cri cal amplitude:

Ω ( η0 )
1 ηb
ηb = ln (12)

where Ω, the maximum growth rate, is found by numerically maximizing (11) as a func on of k.
ln(ηb /η0 ) is sheet constant.
The ligaments are formed at a given length:

Ω ( η0 )
U ηb
Lb = ln (13)

The diameter of the ligaments at the point of breakup:

8h
dL = (14)
Ks
where Ks is the wave number corresponding to the maximum growth rate Ω.
Sheet thickness h is a func on of the breakup length:
r0 h 0
h= (15)
r0 + Lb sin ( 2θ )
For waves that are short compared with the sheet thickness, the ligament diameter is found from:
2π CL
dL = (16)
Ks
where CL is the ligament constant.
In either the long-wave or the short-wave case, the diameter of ini al droplets from the ligament is:

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 Internship Report

do = 1.88dL (1 + 3Oh)
1/6
(17)
where Oh is the Ohnesorge number, which is a combina on of the Reynolds number and the Weber
number.
The primary breakup determines the ini al droplet diameter and the ini al droplets velocity.

1.2.1.2. Secondary breakup model

The Stochas c Secondary Droplet(SSD) model is used to simulate the secondary breakup model. The
SSD model treats breakup as a discrete random event resul ng in a distribu on of diameter scales over a
range. With the SSD model, the probability of secondary breakup is independent of the parent droplet
size, and the secondary droplet size is sampled from an analy cal solu on of the Fokker-Planck equa on
for the probability distribu on. The SSD model predicts the me at which breakup occurs. Droplets larger
than a cri cal radius are subject to breakup:
Wecr σl
rc = (18)
ρgurel
2

where Wecr are the cri cal Weber number, σl the surface tension of liquid fuel, and the rela ve
velocity.
The droplet secondary breakup me is found from:
ρl r
tbu = B (19)
ρg | urel |
where B is breakup constant.

( η ) (η)
2
vlam 2 d 2/3
urel = (20)

where η is the instantaneous value of Kolmogorov’s scale. Droplets with a radius greater than the cri cal
radius have decreased their breakup me. If the breakup period on the parcel is greater than the cri cal
breakup period, the breakup happens. Once the parcel explodes, it is broken and new parcels are
produced. The diameters of those child parcels shall be determined by sampling a distribu on func on in
the log of the parent parcel diameter:

− (x − x 0 − ξ)
2
1
D(x) = ex p (21)
2π ξ 2 2ξ 2

where x is a distribu on func on in the log of the parent parcel diameter:

x = ln(r0 ) (22)
ξ is a nega ve dimensionless parameter of the model and ex p(ξ ) is a typical factor by which child
par cles are smaller than the original parcel. ξ 2 de nes the variance, and it has a posi ve, dimensionless
value to avoid child par cles that are larger than the original.

( Wej )
Wecr
ξ = K1 log (23)

ξ
ξ2 = − (24)
K2 log ( r )
rj

cr
where K1 and K2 are model constants of order unity, rj the radius of jth the primary droplet that
undergoes breakup. When a breakup occurs, enough parcels are created with diameters sampled
randomly from the distribu on. The number of droplets represented by each created parcel is nearly
equivalent to a target number in the parcel (NP). The func on sampling con nues un l the mass of the
parent parcel is consumed.

1.2.2. Geometry and grid details

The simula ons are conducted on a 3D geometry mesh generated using the workbench of Ansys. The
computa onal domain of simula ons is a cylinder domain, which has dimensions of 320 mm height and

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 Internship Report

400 mm diameter. The posi on of injec on is 20 mm away from the upper wall of the computa onal
domain. Figure 2 illustrates the posi on of the injec on. The boundary condi on of the upper wall of the
computa on domain is set as a wall as well as the cylindrical surface and the lower wall of the
computa on domain is set as the pressure outlet.

Figure 2: Posi on of the injec on.

The computa onal domain consists of 1725000 structured cells. The maximum skewness of the mesh is
0.5, which is sa sfactory for simula ons. Figure 3 presents the computa onal domain.

Figure 3: Computa on domain.

1.2.3. Computa onal procedure

The simula on is conducted with Ansys Fluent solver. In the general se ng, Pressure Based, Transient
State Solver is selected while in the Model op on, the DPM model, energy equa on, turbulence model,
and species transport are turned on. The turbulence model applied is the realizable k − ε turbulence
model with the standard wall func on. The realizable k − ε is selected because it simulates precisely the
spreading rate of both planar and round jets. In the DPM model, the injec on is a pressure swirl atomizer

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 Internship Report

which is based on the LISA theory. This injec on is responsible for the primary breakup process. The
dynamic drag law is selected by using the SSD model for the secondary breakup process. The injec on
pressure is gradually set to 0.5MPa, 0.7MPa, 0.9MPa.
In the injec on se ngs, the par cle type is set as droplet. The diameter of the atomizer is 0.4mm and
the spray cone angle is 80o. The liquid fuel injected from the injec on is FT fuel. The proper es of it are
presented in Table 1.
The outlet is set as pressure outlet with atmospheric condi ons. The turbulence method used at the
outlet is an intensity and viscosity ra o method with turbulence intensity at 5% and turbulence viscosity
ra o at 10.
The gas phase is air. The ini aliza on of the simula on is air simula on without dispersed phase.
Stochas c trajectory selec on is used to achieve random distribu on. Fluent will solve the Navier-Stokes
equa on for every node in the domain for solu on. Once all the residual monitors maintain constant
value, the simula on is considered as converged and this itera on is terminated.

Figure 4: Par cle tracks colored by par cle diameter at 0.5MPa (a), 0.7MPa(b), and
0.9MPa(c).

Table 1: Proper es of FT fuel.

Properties FT
Density(15o, kg/m3) 750
Kinematic Viscosity(mm2/s) 1.862
Surface Tension(mN/m) 23.62
Vapor Pressure(kPa) 0.5

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 Internship Report

1.3. Result and Conclusion

1.3.1. SMD and velocity magnitude distribu on
The results obtained by simula ons of FT fuel are discussed in this sec on. The pressure was varied to
inves gate the e ect on the diameter and velocity magnitude of droplets.
Figure 4 shows that the droplets diameter increases with axial distance downstream the nozzle exit for
FT fuel at all pressures. Droplets diameter con nues decreasing before 20 mm away from the nozzle exit
because the droplets con nue breaking up due to secondary breakup and evapora ng as they move
further downstream. Then, the velocity of droplets drops, making the probability of droplet collision and
coalescence increase. So, the forma on of big droplets occurs. Generally, small droplets occur in the spray
periphery region at all pressures. Because the par cles which travel on the edge of the spray were more
a ected by the shear stress between the air and the droplets. Small droplets are also found inside the
spray core region due to the turbulence generated by the shear stress dragging the small droplets inside
the hollow cone. Besides, as the increase of injec on pressure, some small droplets tend to move
upstream. The reason for this phenomenon is the minimum droplet diameter drops as the growth of the
injec on pressure. The iner a forces of the smallest droplets are not big enough to overcome the pressure
di erence between the liquid fuel jet and the air. So, these droplets move towards the low-pressure place
under the pressure di erence.
In Figure 5, the SMD of droplets reaches the highest value at 0.5MPa and decreases as the increase of
the pressure as well as the par cle maximum velocity appears the opposite tendency. By increasing the
injec on pressure, more energy is applied to the droplets to overcome the surface tension, and the
increase of the velocity further increases the probability of breakup due to the rise of the We number.

Figure 5: SMD and Maximum velocity for the following pressure 0.5MPa, 0.7MPa, and
0.9MPa.

As described in Figure 6, shows a distribu on of small droplets with high velocity near the nozzle exit,
but as the droplets travel further from the nozzle, they droplets are decelera ng with the axial distance.
Therefore, larger droplets are being formed due to fast droplets colliding and coalescing on slow-mo on
droplets downstream. The distribu on of a large number of small par cles traveling at small veloci es is
presented at the edge of the spray, inside the spray core region, and in the further downstream spray
region.

1.3.2. Conclusion
This simula on numerically con rmed how the change of pressure a ects the spray characteris cs,
including the par cle diameter and velocity magnitude.
High injec on pressure generates small droplets and gives droplets high velocity. The small droplets are
located inside the spray core region and in the spray periphery at all pressure in the rst place. Due to the
decelera ng of the droplets, the collision and coalescence between droplets begin domina ng the
atomiza on process as the droplets move downstream.
Some very small droplets move upstream in the condi on of high injec on pressure because the iner a

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 Internship Report

forces are not big enough for these droplets to overcome the pressure di erence.
This ar cle concentrates on FT fuel spray characteris cs simula on with the Lagrange phase method,
which is a discrete par cle phase method. Possible future work of alterna ve avia on fuel spray
simula on is to develop new numerical models to more accurately simulate the spray process. Another
possibility for improving the accuracy is to simulate the atomiza on process with Euler and Lagrange
phases at the same me.

Figure 6: Par cle tracks colored by par cle velocity magnitude at 0.5MPa (a), 0.7MPa(b), and
0.9MPa(c).

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 Reference

2. Reference
[1] Zhao, J. and Yang, L. (2012) ‘Simula on and experimental study on the atomiza on character of the
pressure-swirl nozzle’, Open Journal of Fluid Dynamics, 02(04), pp. 271–277. doi:10.4236/
ojfd.2012.24a032.

[2] LI Shuaibing, SI Ting. Advances on linear instability analysis method of jet breakup[J]. ACTA
AERODYNAMICA SINICA, 2019, 37(3): 356-372. doi: 10.7638/kqdlxxb-2018.0153

[3] Apte, S.V., Gorokhovski, M. and Moin, P. (2003) ‘Les of Atomizing spray with stochas c modeling of
secondary breakup’, Interna onal Journal of Mul phase Flow, 29(9), pp. 1503–1522. doi:10.1016/
s0301-9322(03)00111-3.

[4] Arun S, Rakesh P. Computa onal evalua on of spray characteris cs in pressure swirl atomizers. Int J Sci
Eng Res July-2014;5(7). ISSN 2229-5518.

[5] Dikshit SB, Kulshreshtha DB, Channiwala SA. Numerical Simula on of pressure swirl atomizer for small
scale gas turbine combus on chamber. In: 13th interna onal conference on heat transfer. Portoroz,
Slovenia: Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics; July 2017. p. 17-9.

[6] Arun S, Rakesh P. Computa onal evalua on of spray characteris cs in pressure swirl atomizers. Int J Sci
Eng Res July-2014;5(7). ISSN 2229-5518.

[7] Fluent Theory Guide

[8] Bafekr, S. H., Shams, M., Ebrahimi, R., & Shadaram, A. (2010). Numerical simula on of pressure-swirl
spray dispersion by using eulerian-lagrangian method. Journal of Dispersion Science and Technology,
32(1), 47–55. doi:10.1080/01932690903543436

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