Numerical study on film disintegration by centrifugal atomisation using rotating cup

Abstract

Centrifugal atomisation of liquid or melts using a rotating cup is an efficient process that is widely used in many industrial processes, which range from chemical reactors to powder production in metallurgy. The theoretical prediction of liquid drop or particle size is desirable for the design of atomisers and operating parameters. In this paper, film disintegration by centrifugal atomisation using a rotating cup was analysed based on wave theory. Two mathematical models were proposed to predict the maximum unstable growth rate, wave length, film length, break-up time and drop size for the rotating cup at high and low Weber number respectively. The film break-up length and drop size were calculated numerically and agreed with the experimental results very well in film disintegration. In addition, the effects of the atomisation parameters in the film disintegration were discussed. The mathematical models are able to accurately predict the atomisation parameters.

Keywords:

• Drop
• Particle formation
• Numerical simulation
• Rotating cup
• Centrifugal atomisation

Acknowledgements

This research was supposed by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (grant no. N100602013), the National Natural Science Fund (grant no. 51274066), the National High-tech R&D Program (grant no. 2006AA05Z209) and the Key Technologies R&D Program (grant no. 2006BAE03A11).