A Numerical Study of the Spray Characteristics of the UIUC Subsonic Wind Tunnel
A. Khodadoust and M.B. Bragg
University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801
ABSTRACT
The behavior of water droplet trajectories in
the two-dimensional subsonic wind tunnel at the
University of Illinois was studied numerically. A
finite difference two-dimensional potential flow
solver and a three-dimensional particle trajectory
code have been written and validated for solving the
flowfield inside of a subsonic incompressible flow
wind tunnel and computing particle trajectories.
Seven droplet sizes ranging from 6.31 to 45.19
microns were used in this study based on the
Langmuir-D distribution for a mean volumetric
diameter of 20.36 microns. The droplets were
released upstream of the contraction in the inlet of
the wind tunnel. The results of this computational
study showed that the trajectory of the larger water
droplets were affected by the droplet inertia and
gravity more dramatically than that for the smaller
particles. The calculated liquid water contents at a
perpendicular plane in the center of the test section
indicated a high concentration of large droplets near
the tunnel centerline, where areas the smaller
droplets can be expected to span the entire test
section width. The analysis further revealed that the
computed effective droplet distribution was skewed
toward the larger droplets in comparison with the
Langmuir-D distribution.