Scale-Resolving Simulation of Shock-Induced Aerobreakup of Water Droplet

Abstract

Two different scale-resolving simulation (SRS) approaches to turbulence modeling and simulation are used to predict the breakup of a spherical water droplet in air, due to the impact of a traveling plane shock wave. The compressible flow governing equations are solved by means of a finite volume-based numerical method, with the volume-of-fluid technique being employed to track the air–water interface on the dynamically adaptive mesh. The three-dimensional analysis is performed in the shear stripping regime, examining the drift, deformation, and breakup of the droplet for a benchmark flow configuration. The comparison of the present SRS results against reference experimental and numerical data, in terms of both droplet morphology and breakup dynamics, provides evidence that the adopted computational methods have significant practical potential, being able to locally reproduce unsteady small-scale flow structures. These computational models offer viable alternatives to higher-fidelity, more costly methods for engineering simulations of complex two-phase turbulent compressible flows.