Numerical Simulation of Single Droplet Hydrodynamics Affected by Electrostatic Forces with the Aid of CFD: CFD Simulation of Single Droplet Hydrodynamics

Introduction

Spraying is the physical process of dispersing a liquid as a stream of droplets in a gas form. The point of spraying is maximizing the liquid impressions by increasing its surface. Sprays are the instruments to simplify the spraying process of liquids and they typically include a nozzle through which liquid gets dispersed after passing through it, depending on various factors and spray type. There are different types of sprays that include in hydraulic, gaseous, supersonic and vibrant ones (Speranza & Ghadiri, 2003). When a specific process is sensitive to droplet size and its distribution, controlling the operation conditions such as flow rate, electric field strength, viscosity and electrical conductivity is very important in order to produce the desired and uniform size of droplet. Thus, according to the ability of the electro-spray method in producing the desired and uniform droplets, replacing the conventional methods by this one will lead to an improvement in spraying process. Electro-spray method can be applied instead of conventional methods in internal combustion engines, production of biodegradation polymer particles in the micrometer and nanometer dimensions (Xie, Lim, Phua, Hua, & Wang, 2006), Preparation of immobilized enzyme gel (Watanabe, Matsuyama, & Yamamoto, 2001), spraying outturns(crops) (Speranza & Ghadiri, 2003; Watanabe, Matsuyama, & Yamamoto, 2003), color spray painting (Okuda & Kelly, 1996), and the pharmaceutical industry (Ijsebaert, Geerse, Marijnissen, & Scarlett, 1999; Jaworek & Sobczyk, 2008).