Numerical simulation of the disintegration of forced liquid jets using volume-of-fluid method

The present numerical study investigates the effect of finite sinusoidal velocity modulations imposed on an otherwise unperturbed cylindrical liquid jet issuing into stagnant gas using Volume-of-Fluid (VOF) methodology. Variation of the simulation parameters, comprising of the mean liquid jet velocity, modulation amplitude and frequency grouped together using a set of non-dimensional parameters, leads to the formation of a wide gamut of reproducible liquid structures such as surface waves, upstream/downstream directed bells and chains of droplets similar to those observed in experiments. The computations efficiently capture the diverse flow structures generated by the evolving modulated liquid jet inclusive of several nonlinear dynamics such as growth of surface waves, ligament interaction with shear vortices and its subsequent thinning process. The simulations identify the deterministic behaviour of modulated liquid jets to predict liquid disintegration modes under given set of non-dimensional parameters.