Atomization and Sprays

Wong, Matthew

Student Work

Atomization and Sprays

Public Deposited

Although the world is taking action to reduce its use of fossil fuels, current infrastructure still required a combustion engine or liquid injection combustion unit to generate power. Thus, develop of new and improved methods of liquid fuel injection are warranted. One such technology is the approach of ultrasonic atomization, where a liquid droplet is dropped vertically towards a node of a generated standing wave. With further experimentation, it is possible to understand the variable factor and behavior of ultrasonic atomization to fine-tune the method for use of controlling mean atomization diameter, droplet diameter distribution, and droplet distribution density. Water sensitive paper was used to imprint the immediate droplet fragmentation, which is scanned digitally using an electronic microscope. Image processing program ImageJ is then used to threshold transform the picture and analyze the droplet count and individual area. Although experimentation and data collection were successful, the limited number of different tests compiled leaves the current understanding of the atomization behavior to be inconclusive. However, with retrial of testing conditions and the compilation of more test variables, we can stabilize observed correlations in the current comparison tests.

This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

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