Research

Aerobreakup is a process of deformation and fragmentation of a droplet subjected to high-speed gas flow. It has various natural and industrial applications like raindrop formation, spray systems, fuel atomization, energy systems, aerospace, agriculture, medicine and food industries; recently, even for modelling disease transmission. In all such cases, the size distribution of the fragmented droplets is a critical parameter. Few such applications utilize a supersonic gas flow to atomize the fluid for, e.g. liquid metal atomisation for metal powder production in additive manufacturing applications.

We are in pursuit of developing a model that describes the droplet aerobreakup due to impulsive acceleration behind a shockwave. Broad objectives:

(a) Developing experimental techniques - Optical Measurement Methods

(b) Development of an experimental setup - Wire-blast based Shocktube

(c) Investigating the physics of aerobreakup - Advancement of interfacial dynamics and breakup analysis.