The breakup of a liquid jet in an immiscible liquid has been investigated. The variation in the jet break-up length was studied to determine the influence of various parameters e.g. amplitude and frequency of the applied vibrations.
To generate experimental data a rig was designed and constructed. To maintain a constant flow of the dispersed phase through the nozzle, a number of techniques were tried. A compressed air system was found to be the most suitable to develop a constant head for the flow and no variation in the flow of a dispersed phase was observed after 12 hours.
Initially experiments were conducted at a high flow rate of the dispersed phase and the variation in the jet length was measured under the influence of externally applied vibrations. It was found that amplitude and frequency of the applied vibration influenced the jet break-up length. Rayleigh's equation was applied to correlate the experimental data. It was found that the applied frequency does not effect the growth rate but it does influence the jet break-up length. Hence Rayleigh's equation was modified to allow for this variation. The error between experimental and predicted results was found to be not more than the difference in the dropsizes. To eliminate this error, the measurement technique previously employed (still photography) was supplemented with a video technique and the jet length measurements were only taken when monosized droplets were produced.
At low flow rates it was found easier to produce monosized droplets, hence subsequent measurements were taken in this flow region. To correlate experimental data Rayleigh's equation was further modified to take into account the influence of a natural and an applied vibration. Theoretical and experimental results agree well within the range of error ± 0.30 mm.
It was found that the number of monosized droplets produced were equal to the applied frequency. Any change in the frequency altered the dropsize because the flow rate was constant
