Experimental study of the Spray Pattern of a Non-Newtonian Gelled Fluid using Two Impinging Jets

The weaknesses of liquid propellants have led to special attention to gelled propellants in the last two decades as a way to overcome the weaknesses of these propellants. Previous studies have shown that the addition of gel-forming agents to liquid propellants converts these propellants, mainly Newtonian fluids, into non-Newtonian fluids, which greatly affects the physical properties of these propellants. In order to better understand the changes occurred in the physical properties of liquid propellants due to their gelled structure, on factors such as spraying and atomization, in this study, impinging jet injectors have been used to spray and atomize a non-Newtonian gelled fluid with rheological properties similar to gelled propellants. Analysis of the results of the present study shows that the use of impinging jet injectors causes different regimes of spraying and atomization (due to the jets’ high Reynolds number) for non-Newtonian gelled fluids, some of which being fundamentally different from the regimes formed for Newtonian fluids. In general, 4 regimes including stable closed rim, unstable closed rim with the formation of vermicular ligaments, open rim with successive formation of bow-shaped ligaments and a turbulent regime have been identified in this study. The properties of each of these regimes and their details will be explained in this paper.