Spray diagnostics for the twenty-first century

A critical review of the progress in atomization and spray technology is pr esented. Although significant progress has been made with the benefit of de velopments in theory, diagnostics, and modeling, the ability to accurately prescribe or predict the spray mid related two-phase turbulent-flow behavio r in detail has generally eluded our efforts. Available diagnostics are rev iewed and some extrapolations are offered suggesting where evolving technol ogies in the areas of electronics, computers, software, and information tec hnology (IT) might lend. Experimentation conducted over the past decades is criticized for lacking completeness and quality ill the information measur ed and for its failure to identify, measure, and record all of the signific ant parameters. Deficiencies in measurement capabilities are recognized and arguments are presented regarding the need to integrate the experimentatio n and modeling. Proposed strategies include the simultaneous experimentatio n with interactive model predictions, which way be the only means available to completely describe the spray processes and attain the development need ed irt actually predicting the phenomena. Currently, the typical time scale fur interactions between experiments and numerical modeling are of the ord er of gears. Elapsed time needs to be reduced to seconds and, in many cases , to real time. Reaching the goal of accurate prediction, understanding and the ability to prescribe spray characteristics will require highly automat ed data acquisition, integrated modeling, storage, and efficient, Easy acce ss to large volumes of information. This will require even greater reliance on computing power, information systems, and the Next Generation Internet (NGI).