Numerical Simulation of Gel Propellant Droplet Breakup in Airflow

The droplet breakup is of importance in variety of spay combustion field. In order to investigate gel propellant droplet breakup in a gaseous phase, the Navier-Stokes equations in their axi-symmetric form was solved using the finite volume technique, and the Volume of Fluid method (VOF) was employed for tracking the free liquid-gas interface during process of droplet breakup. The results were compared with available published experimental data for Newtonian droplet, and validated the numerical model. The results show that increasing Weber number (We) can accelerate drop breakup; under the low shear rate, increasing K leads to droplet more resistant to breakup, drop breakup is dominated by K value; under the high shear rate, reducing n value results in stronger the shear-thinning behavior, and a decrease in resistant to breakup, n value governs the droplet breakup.