The aerodynamic breakup of droplets is essential for many applications like fuel atomization, agricultural spraying, fire suppression, and crashing sea waves. While most studies focus on droplet sizes from microns up to the capillary length, we explore the breakup of extremely large droplets. We have designed a novel device that releases a large droplet onto an air jet combined with a moving plate mechanism that impulsively exposes the droplets. The droplet freefall allows us to observe the response when no connected needle is present and to observe the altered behavior when the droplet is in different mode shapes (non-spherical). Observed breakup types include a cascading behavior, forward bagging, and dependence on initial mode shape and Weber number. Through supportive volume of fluid-based DNS, we are able to show that the droplet breakup is greatly altered by the phase and amplitude because of competing forces inside vs. outside of the droplet.

Contributors

Sandip Laxman Dighe, Nilamani Sahoo, Dilip Kumar Maity, Charbel El Khoury, Spencer Stephen Truman, Aqeel Almanashi, Aditya Parik, Randy Ewoldt, Som Dutta