Elastic liquid jet impaction on a high-speed moving surface

In the railroad industry a friction-modifying non-Newtonian liquid, showing elastic behavior, may be applied to the rail in the form of a liquid jet. The interaction of this elastic liquid jet and the moving surface-specifically whether it splashes or adheres without splash-is important in this industrial application. Twelve different elastic liquids with widely varying relaxation times were tested to isolate the effect of elasticity from other fluid properties. Using high-speed imaging, the interaction between the impinging jet and the moving surface could be captured and analyzed. Although similar to Newtonian jets, for which the Reynolds number plays a major role, the Deborah number was also salient to the splash of elastic liquids. At the elevated Weber numbers of the testing, the Weber number had a much smaller impact on splash than did the Reynolds or Deborah numbers. The ratio of the surface velocity to the jet velocity has only a small effect on the splash. © 2012 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2012 Copyright © 2012 American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE).

Duke Scholars

Author Bavand Keshavarz Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materia ...