Abstract
•Breakup regime of superheated liquid jet under depressurized release is examined.•Both thermal nonequilibrium and mechanical forces are involved as driving effects.•The coupling regime of the two driving effects during depressurization is explored.•Non-flashing, partially flashing, and fully flashing breakup modes are identified.•The interaction of the two driving effects is quantified by dimensionless analysis.
Superheated liquid jets disintegrate into numerous droplets when released into the ambient with lower saturated pressure, driven by thermal nonequilibrium induced flashing and the accompanying mechanical forces. Such a phenomenon facilitates fuel atomization in energy utilization while posing a serious threat during accidental releases. In this work, the breakup and droplet formation of superheated liquid jets under depressurized releases were investigated with an experimental 20 L tank. A high-speed camera was utilized to characterize breakup behaviors. The interaction between thermodynamic and mechanical effects during depressurization was discussed based on linear stability analysis and bubble dynamics. Furthermore, the quantitative relationship between the two driving effects under different conditions was established using dimensionless and multiple regression analyses. Results show that the thermodynamic effect increases with the decreased mechanical effect during depressurization because of the increased energy of bubble burst, regardless of the external or internal flashing regime. Non-flashing, partially flashing, and fully flashing breakup modes are identified. The dimensionless and multiple regression analyses show that in addition to thermodynamic (Ja, ρv/ρl, Rp, and ηp) and mechanical (Wev and Oh) effects, the inhibition induced by the cooling effect (Pr and Ec) should not be overlooked. The quantitative expression among them agrees well with experimental data with R2=0.976.