MONODISPERSE SPRAYS FOR VARIOUS PURPOSES - THEIR PRODUCTION AND CHARACTERISTICS

The production of liquid sprays represents a key technology for a wide range of industrial processes. Most applications currently use pressu re or air-assisted atomization, resulting in the production of polydis perse sprays. Recent advances in experimental and numerical techniques for investigating liquid spraying processes, however, have enabled a closer examination of parameter optimization, leading to the conclusio n that in many cases, a much narrower size distribution, or even a mon odisperse spray, may exhibit many advantages. Currently monodisperse d roplet generators, or drop-on-demand generators, do not meet this chal lenge of producing monodisperse sprays, primarily owing to the very lo w volume flow rate of liquid which is atomized. In the present work, a monodisperse spray generator is introduced, which overcomes this diff iculty for many applications.