Understanding the breakup morphology of an expelled respiratory liquid is an emerging interest in diverse fields to enhance the efficacious strategies to attenuate disease transmission. In this paper, we present the possible hydrodynamic instabilities associated with expelling the respiratory liquid by a human. For this purpose, we have performed experiments with a cylindrical soap film and air. The sequence of the chain of events was captured with high-speed imaging. We have identified three mechanisms, namely, Kelvin–Helmholtz (K–H) instability, Rayleigh–Taylor (R–T) instability, and Plateau–Rayleigh (P–R) instability, which are likely to occur in sequence. Furthermore, we discuss the multiple processes responsible for drop fragmentation. The processes such as breakup length, rupture, ligament, and drop formation are documented with a scaling factor. The breakup length scales with We −0.17 , and the number of ligaments scales as . In addition, the thickness of the ligaments scales as We −0.5 . Here, We and Bo represent the Weber and Bond numbers, respectively. It was also demonstrated that the flapping of the liquid sheet is the result of the K–H mechanism, and the ligaments formed on the edge of the rim appear due to the R–T mechanism, and finally, the hanging drop fragmentation is the result of the P–R instability. Our study highlights that the multiple instabilities play a significant role in determining the size of the droplets while expelling a respiratory liquid. This understanding is crucial to combat disease transmission through droplets.

This paper describes the three-dimensional destabilization characteristics of an annular liquid sheet when subjected to the combined action of Rayleigh–Taylor (RT) and Kelvin–Helmholtz (KH) instability mechanisms. The stability characteristics are studied using temporal linear stability analysis and by assuming that the fluids are incompressible, immiscible and inviscid. Surface tension is also taken into account at both the interfaces. Linearized equations governing the growth of instability amplitude have been derived. These equations involve time-varying coefficients and have been analysed using two approaches – direct numerical time integration and frozen-flow approximation. From the direct numerical time integration, we show that the time-varying coefficients evolve on a slow time scale in comparison with the amplitude growth. Therefore, we justify the use of the frozen-flow approximation and derive a closed-form dispersion relation from the appropriate governing equations and boundary conditions. The effect of flow conditions and fluid properties is investigated by introducing dimensionless numbers such as Bond number ($Bo$), inner and outer Weber numbers ($We_{i}$, $We_{o}$) and inner and outer density ratios ($Q_{i}$, $Q_{o}$). We show that four instability modes are possible – Taylor, sinuous, flute and helical. It is observed that the choice of instability mode is influenced by a combination of both $Bo$ as well as $We_{i}$ and $We_{o}$. However, the instability length scale calculated from the most unstable wavenumbers is primarily a function of $Bo$. We show a regime map in the $Bo,We_{i},We_{o}$ parameter space to identify regions where the system is susceptible to three-dimensional helical modes. Finally, we show an optimal partitioning of a given total energy ($\unicode[STIX]{x1D701}$) into acceleration-induced and shear-induced instability mechanisms in order to achieve a minimum instability length scale (${\mathcal{L}}_{m}^{\ast }$). We show that it is beneficial to introduce at least 90 % of the total energy into acceleration induced RT instability mechanism. In addition, we show that when the RT mechanism is invoked to destabilize an annular liquid sheet, ${\mathcal{L}}_{m}^{\ast }\sim \unicode[STIX]{x1D701}^{-3/5}$.

In the present study, we investigate the phenomenon of transition of a thermoacoustic system involving two-phase flow, from aperiodic oscillations to limit cycle oscillations. Experiments were performed in a laboratory scale model of a spray combustor. A needle spray injector is used to generate a droplet spray having one dimensional velocity field. This simplified design of the injector helps in keeping away the geometric complexities involved in the real spray atomizers. We investigate the stability of the spray combustor in response to the variation of the flame location inside the combustor. Equivalence ratio is maintained constant throughout the experiment. The dynamics of the system is captured by measuring the unsteady pressure fluctuations present in the system. As the flame location is gradually varied, self-excited high amplitude acoustic oscillations are observed in the combustor. We observe the transition of the system behaviour from low amplitude aperiodic oscillations to large amplitude limit cycle oscillations occurring through intermittency. This intermittent state mainly consists of a sequence of high-amplitude periodic bursts separated by low amplitude aperiodic regions. Moreover, the experimental results highlight that during intermittency, the maximum amplitude of bursts oscillations, near to the onset of intermittency, is as much as three times higher than the maximum amplitude of the limit cycle oscillations. These high amplitude intermittent loads can have stronger adverse effects on the structural properties of the engine than the low amplitude cyclic loading caused by the sustained limit cycle oscillations. Evolution of the three different dynamical states of the spray combustion system (viz. stable, intermittency and limit cycle) are studied in three-dimensional phase space by using a phase space reconstruction tool from the dynamical system theory. We report the first experimental observation of type-II intermittency in a spray combustion system. The statistical distributions of the length of aperiodic (turbulent) phase with respect to the control parameter, first return map and recurrence plot techniques are employed to confirm the type of intermittency.

The effect of competing Rayleigh-Taylor and Kelvin-Helmholtz mechanisms of instability applied to a cylindrical two-fluid interface is discussed. A three-dimensional temporal linear stability model for the instability growth is developed based on the frozen time approximation. The fluids are assumed to be inviscid and incompressible. From the governing equations and the boundary conditions, a dispersion relation is derived and analyzed for instability. Four different regimes have been shown to be possible, based on the most unstable axial and circumferential wavenumbers. The four modes are the Taylor mode, the sinuous mode, the flute mode and long and short wavelength helical modes. The effect of Bond number, Weber number, and density ratio are investigated in the context of the mode chosen. It is found that Bond number is the primary determinant of the neutral stability while Weber number plays a key role in identifying the instability mode that is manifest. A regime map is presented to delineate the modes realized for a given set of flow parameter values. From this regime map, a short wavelength helical mode is identified which is shown to result only when both the Rayleigh-Taylor and Kelvin-Helmholtz instability mechanisms are active. A scaling law for the magnitude of the wavenumber vector as a function of Bond number and Weber number are also developed. A length scale is defined to characterize the interface distortion. Using this length scale, the set of conditions where the interface exhibits a maximum in surface area creation is identified. With the objective of achieving the smallest characteristic length scale of interface distortion, a criterion to optimally budget mean flow energy is also proposed.

The parabolic dish concentrator is one of the most efficient technologies to convert direct beam radiation into thermal energy for steam and power generation. The parabolic dish concentrates direct beam radiation from the sun on to a receiver at the focal point. The receiver plays a major role to transform the reflected solar radiation into thermal energy. The conversion efficiency of the dish is severely influenced by imperfection of the dish collector such as the contour of parabola, size of the facets aligned, positioning of the receiver and tracking of the system. These imperfections are mainly involved in the design, manufacturing, construction and operation of a parabolic dish collector. To overcome this imperfection, secondary reflector are normally deployed at the focal region of the receiver. The function of the secondary reflector reradiates the deviated rays from the primary concentrator onto the receiver. In this aspect, flat receiver is initially fabricated to evaluate the performance of the flat receiver without secondary reflector. In this paper, the experimental investigations on flat receiver for 12.6 m2 area of solar parabolic dish concentrator system to estimate the receiver temperature and overall heat transfer coefficient of the flat receiver. In order to estimate this, rectangular box type aluminium receiver is fabricated and placed at the focal point of 2.42 m from the base of the dish. The aperture area of dish concentrator system is 12.6 m2 area and it consists of 12 petals and in each petals 128 flat mirrors of size 7.5 cm × 7.5 cm with reflectivity of 0.95 are pasted on 1.2 mm thickness MS plate to form a parabolic dish concentrator. The azimuth and elevation manual tracking arrangements are made to track the dish continuously for different orientation of the sun. K-type thermocouples are used to measure the temperatures of the top and bottom of the receiver. To measure the maximum temperature of the receiver, experiments are carried out for stagnation conditions (without heat retrieval from the receiver). Experiments are carried out on 5th, 6th and 7th March 2018 from 10.00 am to 3.00 pm. For different direct beam solar radiation, the top and bottom temperatures, ambient temperatures are measured. The maximum temperature of 399°C is achieved at the bottom surface of the flat receiver for the beam radiation of 955 W/m2, and the corresponding top surface temperature of 58°C is achieved for the same flux. Based on the measured bottom surfaces temperatures, the overall heat transfer coefficient of bottom surface are estimated as 145.56 W/m2 K. Based on this study, further heat transfer analysis will be carried out for the developed flat receiver.

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In the present study, we investigate the phenomenon of transition of a thermoacoustic system involving two-phase flow, from aperiodic oscillations to limit cycle oscillations. Experiments were performed in a laboratory scale model of a spray combustor. A needle spray injector is used to generate a droplet spray having one-dimensional velocity field. This simplified design of the injector helps in keeping away the geometric complexities involved in the real spray atomizers. We investigate the stability of the spray combustor in response to the variation of the flame location inside the combustor. Equivalence ratio is maintained constant throughout the experiment. The dynamics of the system is captured by measuring the unsteady pressure fluctuations present in the system. As the flame location is gradually varied, self-excited high-amplitude acoustic oscillations are observed in the combustor. We observe the transition of the system behavior from low-amplitude aperiodic oscillations to large amplitude limit cycle oscillations occurring through intermittency. This intermittent state mainly consists of a sequence of high-amplitude bursts of periodic oscillations separated by low-amplitude aperiodic regions. Moreover, the experimental results highlight that during intermittency, the maximum amplitude of bursts, near to the onset of intermittency, is as much as three times higher than the maximum amplitude of the limit cycle oscillations. These high-amplitude intermittent loads can have stronger adverse effects on the structural properties of the engine than the low-amplitude cyclic loading caused by the sustained limit cycle oscillations. Evolution of the three different dynamical states of the spray combustion system (viz., stable, intermittency, and limit cycle) is studied in three-dimensional phase space by using a phase space reconstruction tool from the dynamical system theory. We report the first experimental observation of type-II intermittency in a spray combustion system. The statistical distributions of the length of aperiodic (turbulent) phase with respect to the control parameter, first return map and recurrence plot (RP) techniques are employed to confirm the type of intermittency.

No abstract