Investigation of aerodynamic breakup of a cylindrical water droplet

To explain the breakup Process of spherical liquid droplets by shock leave loading, the deformation and breakup of a cylindrical wafer column, impinge d by a planar shock wave, were investigated both experimentally and numeric ally. Experiments were conducted in a 4 mm X 150 mm shock tube equipped wit h double-exposure holographic interferometer. The cylindrical water column, having a diameter of 4.8 mm and a height of 4 mm, was exposed to a planar shock wave of Mach number 1.47 in atmospheric air. Weber and Reynolds numbe rs corresponding to these conditions were 6900 and 1.22 X 10(5) respectivel y. Density changes inside the water column were estimated from interferomet eric fringes, and its deformation and breakup process were also evaluated f rom the interferograms. Numerical results were obtained by solving the Eule r equations using the cubic interpolated pseudo-particle (CIP) method to tr eat a two-phase flow-field consisting of compressible and incompressible fl uids. The results show quantitatively good agreement for density variation in be gaseous phase, whereas for the liquid phase, numerical density distri butions show only qualitative agreement with experimental ones.