Experimental Analysis of Tangential-Vane Swirl Atomizer Spray Angle

A swirl atomizer is a widely applied spray-generating device. The swirling motion of a swirl atomizer is induced either by a tangential inlet or a swirl-generating vane. The swirling effect produces a spray with a wide angle which is important in various applications such as gas cooling, diesel engine combustion, and automatic hand sanitizer. An intense swirling mechanism was reported to significantly affect the spray angle. An attempt was made by combining tangential inlet and swirl-generating vane in a single embodiment to create a more intense swirling effect. The experiment was conducted with pipe flow in transition and turbulence regimes. The shadowgraph technique was applied to acquire the spray images. The images were processed using image processing software. It was found that the combined swirling mechanism produces a wider spray angle compared to the individual tangential inlet swirl atomizer. It was also found that the swirling intensity has a bigger effect on the spray angle than the Reynolds number.