Particle Concentrations in High Mach Number, Two-Phase Flows

An experimental and theoretical study of the behavior of solid particles in high speed flow systems has been conducted. A new drag coefficient correlation which allows greater accuracy in the prediction of particle trajectories over a wide range of slip Mach number and slip Reynolds number was formulated. A variety of basic two-phase flow situations, i.e., uniform flow, Prandtl-Meyer expansion, and oblique shock, was investigated by varying the initial particle velocity and particle radius. In addition, the effect of different gases and different particles on the two-phase flow characteristics was investigated, and significant differences were noted. The exploratory experimental studies conducted in this investigation substantiate that a test facility suitable for the study of particle trajectories has been developed and that accurate particle concentration profiles can be obtained with the laser scattering technique.