Influence of orifice geometry on atomization characteristics of pressure swirl atomizer

The spray characteristics of the pressure swirl nozzle are experimentally studied using particle dynamics analysis (PDA) and high-speed photography system in this paper, specifically focusing on the dependence of geometrical dimensions of orifice on the spray SMD, velocity magnitude and droplet distribution, and the spray cone angle. It is indicated that the increase of orifice diameter makes the initial swirling velocity lower and the spray liquid film thicker. When the spray cone is fully expanded, the flow rate of 900 μm orifice diameter nozzle increases by 30–40% and the SMD of 900 μm orifice diameter nozzle increases by 8.5% compared with that of 700 μm orifice diameter nozzle. According to the experimental conditions, the relationship between Re and spray angle was calculated as θ = 29.97*Re(0.087), ignoring the factors that had little influence on spray angle. The decrease of the orifice length makes the distance of gas-medium shearing action shorten so that thinner oil film near wall cannot be formed by the extrusion of air core, leading to the swirling intensity reducing and the suction effect weakened. The spray cone angle of the 450 μm orifice length atomizer is about 5° smaller than the nozzle of 500 μm orifice length, and more small SMD droplets are not sucked, resulting in the distribution range of spray SMD declining.