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An experimental study on the spray and

thermal characteristics of R134a two-phase
flashing spray

ARTICLE in INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HEAT AND MASS TRANSFER · JULY 2012

Impact Factor: 2.38 · DOI: 10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2012.04.021

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 International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012) 4460–4468

Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhmt

An experimental study on the spray and thermal characteristics

of R134a two-phase flashing spray
Zhou Zhifu a, Wu Weitao a, Chen Bin a,⇑, Wang Guoxiang a,b,⇑, Guo Liejin a
a
State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325-3903, USA

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Flashing spray of volatile liquids is a common phenomenon observed in many industrial applications
Received 31 October 2011 such as fuel injection of engines, accidental release of flammable and toxic pressure-liquefied gases, fail-
Received in revised form 10 April 2012 ure of a vessel or pipe in the form of a small hole in chemical industry, and cryogenic spray cooling in
Accepted 10 April 2012
laser dermatology, etc. In flashing spray, the volatile liquid is depressurized rapidly at the exit of a nozzle
Available online 9 May 2012
(or a hole in a vessel) and becomes superheated. Such superheated liquid (in the form of either a jet or
droplets) will lead to explosive atomization with fine droplet and a short spray distance. This paper pre-
Keywords:
sents an experimental investigation to the spray and thermal characteristics of flashing spray using cryo-
Flashing spray
R134a
gen R134a. A photographic study of the spray is firstly conducted to visualize the spray formation and
Droplet dynamics the dynamic characteristics of the spray. Afterwards, the spray characteristics are measured by the phase
Thermal characteristics Doppler Particle Analyzer (PDPA). The distributions of the diameter reveals the dramatic dynamic vari-
ation of the liquid droplets due to explosive atomization of large droplets in the region near the exit of
nozzle, while the self-similar velocity profiles are fitted by two empirical correlations to describe the
non-dimensional axial and radial velocities, respectively. The temperature field within the spray is mea-
sured by a small thermocouple. The temperature measurements provide detailed quantitative informa-
tion of both radial and axial temperature distributions of droplets within the spray. These experimental
results provide deep understanding into the whole characteristics of two-phase flashing spray of volatile
liquids.
Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction aerospace engineering, where high-pressure fluids expand into

near vacuum during engine start-up will lead to high superheat
Flashing spray occurs when a high-pressure liquid is injected state as well as flash atomization and vaporization [6].
into low pressure environment to make the liquid superheated, With a low boiling point (26.1 °C at the atmospheric pressure)
characterized by explosive atomization of superheated liquid to and high volatility, R134a has been widely used for flashing spray
generate fine droplets and accompanied by strong evaporation of in many industrial applications as a non-toxic and ozone-friendly
these droplets, leading to extremely low droplets temperature. refrigerant. One important case is the cryogen spray cooling that
Flashing spray finds many industrial applications, for example, is successfully used in laser dermatology to prevent burning injury
flash-spray internal combustion engine [1], distillation of salt of skin during surgery [3,4]. Saturated R134a at room temperature
water by flashing evaporation [2], cryogen spray cooling in laser in a storage tank is injected into the atmospheric environment
treatment of dermatology [3,4], etc. The explosive flashing spray through a special designed nozzle. Flashing atomization and strong
may also take place during the accidental release of flammable evaporation will result in a low temperature spray which provides
and toxic pressure-liquefied gases in chemical or nuclear industry, efficient cooling to skin [7–10]. Spray cooling with R134a also has
when failure of a vessel or pipe in the form of a small hole will re- been used in the metal foundries, cooling of microelectronics and
sult in formation of a flashing jet containing a mixture of liquid chiller in air-conditioning systems to remove high heat fluxes
droplets and vapor [5]. Flashing spray is also relevant for the [11–13]. In the field of industrial safety, Yildiz et al. [14,15] used
R134a as model fluid to simulate the accidental release of pres-
⇑ Corresponding authors at: State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power sured liquid.
Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China. Tel.: +86 29 82667326;
The importance of these applications has motivated research on
fax: +86 29 82669033 (C. Bin), tel.: +1 330 972 7389; fax: +1 330 972 6027 (W.
Guoxiang).
the flashing spray. Brown and York [16] firstly used the photograph
E-mail addresses: chenbin@mail.xjtu.edu.cn (C. Bin), gwang@uakron.edu technology to investigate the flashing spray pattern using water.
(W. Guoxiang). After that, several other visualization studies were also performed

0017-9310/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2012.04.021
 Z. Zhifu et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012) 4460–4468 4461

Nomenclature

d inner diameter of the nozzle (mm) Subscripts

L length of the nozzle (mm) max maximum
z spray axial distance from the nozzle exit (mm) min minimum
Z non-dimensional axial distance s saturated
R spray radial distance from the centerline (mm) MTD minimum temperature distance
D10 droplet arithmetical mean diameter (lm) CSD Cold Spray Distance
D32 droplet Sauter mean diameter (lm) STL Spray Thermal Length
U axial velocity (m/s) STW spray thermal width
V radial velocity (m/s) SCW spray cold width
T droplet temperature (°C)

using water. Miyatake et al. [17] and Peter et al. [18] studied the within 5 ms, and a specially-designed nozzle installed on the posi-
effect of the liquid superheat and the flow rate on the flashing tioner. The nozzle is made of a stainless steel tube of length of
spray. Reitz [19] and Park and Lee [20] investigated the mecha- 63.5 mm and inner diameter of 0.81 mm, which resembles that of
nisms of the flashing sprays. Additionally, Allen [21,22] used the commercial nozzles used for cryogen spray cooling in conjunction
Malvern technique and LDV system to measure the droplet diam- with dermatological laser treatments. A standard high-pressure
eter and the axial velocity distributions of two-phase flashing pro- hose connects the cryogen vessel to the valve, while the nozzle
pane jets. Yildiz et al. [14,15] and Aguilar et al. [23,24] conducted was fit tightly into the opening of the solenoid valve. The internal
experiments to investigate the two-phase flashing R134a jets using structure of the solenoid valve includes four 90° bends and two sud-
the PDPA system. den contraction sections, as shown in Fig. 1b. A micro-scale flowme-
There are only a few reports on the thermal characteristics of ter (931-06xx by Gems, US) is located in the middle of the high-
R134a sprays [23–25]. Aguilar and his co-workers [23,24] found pressure hose to monitor the flow rate of the spray. The experimen-
an exponential decay of the average temperature of steady state tal rig and PDPA system were shown in Fig. 1c and d.
R134a droplets along the spray distance by using a large thermo-
couple with a bead diameter of approximately 0.3 mm. Yildiz et 2.2. Imaging system
al. [25] also used thermocouples to measure the centerline droplets
temperature of R134a sprays from nozzles of 1–3 mm. Their data A high-speed video camera (MotionXtra HG-100, US) with shut-
shows similar variation as reported by Aguilar et al. [23,24]. Miya- ter speed of 997 ls is used to take photographs of the spray. A PLS-
take et al. [17] proposed an empirical correlation for the variation SXE300 Xe lamp with high power provides illumination for the
of spray temperature for superheated water spray. In a review arti- high-speed camera at far distance for large view, while a white lamp
cle, Polanco et al. [5] mentioned a minimum spray temperature with low power near the nozzle for close view. The camera and the
along the centerline of the flashing spray and defined a ‘‘minimum lamps are positioned in the same horizontal plane, with the camera
temperature distance’’. They reported a dimensionless minimum viewing perpendicularly to the spray axis. All photos are taken at
temperature distance of 150–170 (normalized by the nozzle diam- the speed of 1000 fps and the same resolution of 1504  1128 pix-
eters) for propane spray, similar to that by Yildiz et al. [25] for els. The camera is placed either 1900 or 500 mm from the spray axis.
R134a spray. At a far distance, the camera can catch the view of the entire spray;
Although above studies provided some useful information on while at a close distance, the camera can take a photo of the spray
the flashing spray, the results have not given a comprehensive near the nozzle exit. The two distances give the fields of view of
investigation on the R134a two-phase flashing spray. It is apparent about 190  140 and 50  37.5 mm2, respectively.
that more accurate experiments are required to provide a better in-
sight into the mechanisms of the R134a flashing spray. The motiva- 2.3. PDPA measurement system
tion of present work is aimed at conducting a full experimental
study on both spray and thermal characteristics of the R134a A Phase Doppler Particle Analyzer (PDPA by TSI, US) is used to
two-phase flashing spray. The flashing spray pattern and the distri- simultaneously measure the velocity and diameter distribution of
bution of droplet diameter, velocity and temperature have been the droplets in the spray of R134a. The PDPA generates four inter-
investigated by high-speed camera, PDPA and thermocouple. facing laser beams with a power of 0.8 W of two wavelengths,
Empirical correlations based on the experiment results have been 514.5 nm (channel one) and 488 nm (channel two). Two beams fo-
proposed to describe the droplets spray and thermal behaviors. cus on a probe volume, typically smaller than 1 mm3. When drop-
These data should shed important light to the spray development lets go through the probe volume, these beams are interfaced and a
and would be useful for future spray design. Doppler signal with a frequency shift proportional to the droplet
velocity is generated. The diameter and axial and the radial veloc-
2. Experiment system and procedures ity of droplets can be measured simultaneously. The phase differ-
ence between the signals collected by adjacent detectors is
2.1. Spray system proportional to the droplet diameter. Before taking the measure-
ments, the optimum values of the PDPA parameters have to be se-
Fig. 1a shows a schematic of the experimental system for flash- lected including the diameter range (0–1000 lm), velocity range
ing spray study. The system consists of a commercial pressure vessel (0–100 m/s) and the laser power. For each measurement, the spray
for storage of R134a (Dupont), a three-dimensional translational duration lasts 10 s. Repeatability tests have been conducted to
electric positioner (WN105TA300M by Beijing Winner Optics evaluate the confidence on the experimental results. It has been
Instruments Co., China) with resolution of 8 lm, a solenoid electric shown that the dispersion did not exceed ±3% in the droplet mean
valve (B2021SBTTO24DVC by Gems, US) which can open or close velocities (U and V) and ±7% in the droplet mean diameters (3% in
4462 Z. Zhifu et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012) 4460–4468

DAQ PDPA

P-1
Flowmeter

R134a Nozzle Centerline

Valve z
Container
Electric R
Valve

Electric
CCD
Positioner
(a)

Unit:mm
1.58 Valve
8
3.0
Nozzle
R134a
a 0.81
63.5

(b)

(c) (d)
Fig. 1. (a) Schematic of the experimental system, (b) Schematic of the internal structure of the solenoid valve, (c) photograph of experimental test rig, (d) PDPA system.

arithmetic mean diameter D10 and 7% in Sauter mean diameter 2.5. Experiment procedures
D32). Here D10 presents the arithmetic mean diameter of droplets
as calculated on the diameters from the total number of drops Experiments have been carried out successively to record pho-
and D32 denotes the diameter of that drop whose volume/surface tographs by high-speed camera and measure the diameter, velocity
ratio value is the same as the arithmetic mean of volume/surface and temperature of droplets by PDPA and thermocouple,
values on the total number of drops in the spray. respectively.
PDPA measurements are firstly performed on the spray center-
2.4. Droplets temperature measurement line with the axial interval (Dz) of 10 mm from the nozzle exit to
the axial distance of 200 mm. Then the PDPA measurements are ta-
A small thermocouple probe has been developed in this study to ken at four different cross-sections (z = 50, 90, 130 and 170 mm)
systematically measure the temperature variation of liquid drop- with the radial interval (DR) of 1 mm or 2 mm from the center to
lets in the R134a spray. The thermocouple probe is made of a stan- the periphery of the spray as shown in Fig. 1a.
dard T-type thermocouple (Omega, US) with the bead diameter of Similarly with the PDPA measurements, the temperature mea-
about 100 lm and is placed into the spray supported by a fine rigid surements are also firstly performed on the spray centerline with
stick. Its ASTM standard wire error is less than ±1 °C for the mea- the axial interval (Dz) of 10 mm from the nozzle exit to the dis-
surement range, while the signal is acquired at 100 kHz and con- tance where the droplets temperature is high than its saturation
verted to the temperature data using a DAQ board (NI: M-6251, point at the atmospheric pressure. Then the droplets temperature
US) and Labview control soft system. The relative space between at eleven cross-sections (z = 5, 10, 20, . . . , 100 mm) is measured
the thermocouple bead and the nozzle tip is controlled by the from the center to the periphery of the spray until the temperature
three-dimensional electric positioner. Only one thermocouple reached its saturation point with the radial interval (DR) of
probe is used during each measurement to avoid the disturbance 0.5 mm.
of the thermocouple probe to the spray. All experimental condi- In all the experiments, the room temperature is kept at about
tions were kept as steady as possible so a steady state spray can 25 °C, and the relative humidity is about 20%. The R134a cryogen
be maintained during the entire time period of measurement. For contained in the vessel is kept at the saturation state. For steady
each location, the measurement time is 2 s to ensure the steady spray of R134a, the volume flow rate of liquid R134a is
measurement of the thermocouple. 3.15  106 m3/s from the micro-scale flowmeter experimental
 Z. Zhifu et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012) 4460–4468 4463

result. The relative error is less than 2% with our calibration using liquid flows out of the nozzle [26]. The two-phase flow in the tube
water. of the nozzle should be at a pressure higher than the ambient pres-
sure. When the high-pressure bubble-containing liquid exits the
3. Experimental results and discussion nozzle, the liquid is quickly atomized and experienced significant
expansion in the radial direction. Such a flashing-like atomization
3.1. High speed camera observations is typical for volatile liquids like R134a.

Fig. 2a shows a typical photo of the R134a spray from the high-
speed camera (1000 fps) with a fairly strong white light, which 3.2. Spray characteristics by PDPA measurements
illustrates the typical shape of the R134a spray. In the photo, the
central white region is resulted by strong scattering of light from 3.2.1. Droplets density by PDPA count number
dense droplets, while the light-colored periphery is due to small Firstly, we examine the variations of the droplets number mea-
and dilute droplets and/or the R134a vapor. In general, the spray sured by PDPA along the spray axial distance (z) and radial distance
is characterized by a dense, jet-like region near the nozzle exit, fol- (R). As shown in Fig. 3a, the centerline droplets number is no more
lowed by an unsteady spray that may last from 80 to 200 mm. The than 1000 near the exit of the nozzle (z < 30 mm), which indicates
spray becomes unstable after 60 mm, indicating an increased that there exists very dense droplets or incompletely broken liquid
entrainment of air. From Fig. 2a, one can see that there is a large ligaments near the nozzle exit. A sudden increase of the droplets
radial expansion of the spray at the nozzle exit, but the radial size number is observed near z = 50 mm and the maximum value
quickly becomes relative stable interface between the spray and (about 35,000) emerges at z = 100 mm. In this region, the spray be-
the surrounding air. comes more atomized resulting in the increment of the droplets
The expansion and quick formation of the spray after nozzle number as the spray distance increases. After reaching the maxi-
exit can be seen more clearly in Fig. 2b, which shows a close view mum value, the droplets number reduces with the increasement
of the spray near the exit of the nozzle. In this figure, more detailed of the spray distance due to the complete evaporation of the small
feature of the spray can be observed. First of all, a white core region droplets. Overall, the variation of centerline droplets number can
due to strong scattering of the light within the spray near the exit be correlated by a Gaussian function as following,
of the nozzle suggests dense droplets in the area and this region  2 !
diminishes quickly within 25 mm. Compared to the small size of 2:33  106 z  103:84
N ¼ 953:66 þ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi exp 2 ð1Þ
the nozzle, the spray near the nozzle exist shows significant expan- 54:62 p=2 54:62
sion in the radial direction, giving a spray angle larger than 90°. It is
found that the present wide spray angle spray is very different where N denotes the droplets number measured by PDPA in 10 s
from those of non-volatile liquids such as water [19,20]. In the case spurt duration and z is the spray axial distance.
of R134a, the liquid is at a saturated state in the tank with a high Fig. 3b illustrates the radial variations of the droplets number at
pressure (0.7 MPa) at the room temperature. When it flows out four spray distances, z = 50, 90, 130 and 170 mm. It is noticed that
of the valve, the liquid experience a lower pressure and becomes the radial variation of the droplets number at z = 50 mm shows a
superheated. Bubbles are then quickly formed within the long tube maximum value at about R = 5 mm, which indicates again that a
of the nozzle and a two-phase mixture instead of single phase dense cloud of droplets exists in the central region near the nozzle
exit. The radial reduction after the maximum shows similar trend
as that in the case of centerline variation, i.e., the reduction of the
droplets number reflects the decrease in the droplet density along
the radial direction. At z = 90 mm, the maximum point shifts to
R = 1 mm. However, for the two cases of z = 130 and 170 mm, the
maximum points locate at the centerline R = 0 mm. In all three
cases, one can find a continuous reduction of the droplets number
outward, as expected for a spray of a volatile fluid. Fig. 3b also im-
plies that the spray becomes fairly uniform in droplet density along

50
(a) (b) Axial distance
50 mm
90 mm
Count number, N (×103)

40 Fitting curve
130 mm
170 mm
30

20

10

0
0 40 80 120 160 200 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
z (mm) R (mm)

Fig. 2. Photos of steady state spray of R134a, (a) overview and (b) close view near Fig. 3. Variation of the droplets number, (a) along the spray central axis and (b)
the nozzle. along the radial distance at four spray axial distances.
4464 Z. Zhifu et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012) 4460–4468

the radial directions at z = 170 mm where the number changes lit- the liquid R134a are released from the nozzle, which will lead to
tle with R. the small droplets outside the nozzle. However, the liquid R134a
is subcooled by increasing the pressure of the container while
keeping the temperature constant in Yildiz’s experiment, where
3.2.2. Droplets diameter distribution the bubbles were formed outside of the nozzle.
To ensure the validity of the statistic analysis, such as the Sauter
mean diameter (D32) and the mean velocities (U and V), we only
3.2.3. Droplets velocity measurement results
take into account the points where the measured droplet number
The axial and radial mean velocities (U and V) along the center-
is more than 1000 and the distributions follow the normal
line are given in Fig. 5 as a function of spray axial distance (z). As
distribution.
expected, the axial velocity is significantly larger than the radial
Fig. 4 presents the variations of the D32 along the axial distance
velocity at all spray distances. Overall, the radial velocity of the
(z) and radial distance (R). As shown in Fig. 4a, D32 shows a quick
droplets is relatively small (less than 10 m/s), which indicate a
reduction within the first 50 mm along the centerline. One expla-
small diverging spray at the radial direction compared with that
nation of such a quick reduction in the droplet size is related to
along the axial direction as observed in Fig. 2a. It is interesting to
the atomization mechanism of superheated cryogen out of the noz-
see in Fig. 5 that the spray shows a maximum droplet axial velocity
zle. The high temperature liquid droplets out of the nozzle find
at the spray distance of 40 mm. The velocities of atomized droplets
themselves in a superheated state and would be explosively atom-
quickly increase to a maximum value of nearly 55 m/s, and then
ized quickly into smaller droplets to reduce the non-equilibrium
gradually decrease along the spray direction due to the continuous
driving force. This may explain why the droplets in R134a spray
drag force acting on the droplets. The acceleration of droplets near
are fairly small. In the region of the spray distances from 50 to
the nozzle exit can be explained by explosive atomization of super-
130 mm, there is only very small change in D32, which remains
heated liquid in the spray. The unbroken liquid with high pressure
as 12 lm. This suggests that when the spray distance reaches
in the center region propels the atomized droplets outward. As the
50 mm, the droplets reach a quite uniform diameter distribution.
droplets fly further away, the spray becomes better atomized and
A slightly increase of D32 in the later region can be observed due
the unbroken liquid disappears at the axial distance of 40 mm
to the complete evaporation of the very small droplets. The impact
(as can be seen in Fig. 4) where the maximum axial velocity exists.
of the complete evaporation of these small droplets on the reduc-
Then the drag force begins to dominate the droplets motion. The
tion of total surface area is greater than that of the total volume,
acceleration of the droplets near the nozzle exit was also observed
which leads to the slightly increasement of D32 since it is the ratio
by Vu et al. [24] and Yildiz et al. [15] in the R134a flashing spray
of the total volume to the total surface area of all the droplets.
and by Allen [21] in the propane flashing spray. Vu et al. [24] sug-
Fig. 4b shows the radial variations of D32 at four spray dis-
gest that the acceleration of droplets near the nozzle exit is attrib-
tances: z = 50, 90, 130, and 170 mm. It can be seen from the figure
uted to the high velocity difference between the liquid and gas
that D32 changes little along the radial distance on the spray cross-
phases. However, Reitz’s photographic study of the water flashing
sections near the nozzle of z = 50 and 90 mm. As increasing the
spray shows that the acceleration is caused by the expelling from
spray distance to 130 and 170 mm, D32 also changes little in the
the unbroken liquid jet [19], which is consistent with our
central region of the spray cross-sections while the slightly
explanation.
increasement of D32 attributes to the measurement uncertainty
Fig. 6 presents the variations of droplets axial velocity and ra-
as mentioned in Section 2.3. At the periphery, D32 has a quick
dial mean velocity as a function of the radial distance at four spray
reduction along the radial distance due to the strong evaporation
distances: z = 50, 90, 130 and 170 mm. From this figure, one can
of the volatile droplets.
see that the largest axial and radial velocities locate at the center
It is noticed that the data of droplet diameters in Fig. 4 is com-
of the spray independent of the spray distance. As the radial dis-
parable with the experimental data of Aguilar et al. [23], but is
tance increases, the velocities begin to reduce. However, the
much smaller than that of R134a spray by Yildiz et al. [15]. We
speeds of the decrease in the velocities are different for different
carefully examine those experimental conditions and find that
spray distances. The smaller the spray distance is, the faster the
the main reason is the different states of liquid R134a kept in the
velocities will decrease along the radial direction. In other words,
container. In Aguilar’s and our experiments, the liquid R134a are
the droplets velocities become more uniform as the spray section
saturated and the bubbles were formed inside the nozzle when
is far away from the exit of the nozzle.

25
(a) (b) Axial distance 60
Centerline
50 mm Axial Velocity
90 mm 50 Radial Velocity
20 130 mm
170 mm
Velocity (m/s)

40
D32 (µm)

15 30

20
10
10

5 0
0 50 100 150 200 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 0 40 80 120 160 200
z (mm) R (mm) Axial distance, z (mm)

Fig. 4. Variation of the droplets Sauter mean diameter (D32), (a) along the pray Fig. 5. Variation of axial and radial mean velocities of centerline droplets along the
central axis and (b) along the radial distance at four spray axial distances. spray distance.
 Z. Zhifu et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012) 4460–4468 4465

50 3.3. Spray thermal characterization

Axial distance
(a) 50 mm
40 3.3.1. Average temperature of droplets
90 mm
Please note that it is the steady state temperature value that
30 130 mm
U(m/s)

we reported in this section. It is understood that the temperature

170 mm
20 value should represent an average temperature of the droplets
at the given location since both the droplet size and temperature
10 will experience a statistical distribution around their mean
values.
0 Fig. 8 presents typical readings from the thermocouple probe at
6 three locations, where the centerline distances are 10, 30, and
(b)
80 mm from the nozzle exit. As can be seen from Fig. 8, all of the
spray temperature readings reached a steady value no more than
V(m/s)

4
1 s. However, there still exist some slight fluctuations around the
steady value. Therefore, the average value of 100 temperature data
2
during 1.999–2 s is used as the droplet average temperature to
eliminate the fluctuations.
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Radial distance, R (mm) 3.3.2. Characteristics of centerline droplets temperature
The variation of the centerline droplets average temperature
Fig. 6. Variations of droplet velocities, (a) axial velocity and (b) radial velocity along (T) of a given R134a spray has been reported in several cases in
the radial direction at four spray distances. the literature [5,23–25]. Nevertheless, Fig. 9 is the first one to
show a complete picture from the nozzle exit to the end of the
spray. As shown in the figure, the centerline temperature initially
Fig. 7 shows the variations of the non-dimensional velocities
shows an almost exponential decay with the fastest drop in the
normalized by their maximum value as a function of the non-
temperature taking place near the nozzle exit. The temperature
dimensional radial distance normalized by the spray distance. As
drop slows down as spray develops further for the droplets’ rapid
shown clearly in this figure, the non-dimensional velocities show
evaporation and the insufficiency of the convective heat transfer
self-similar profile and follow the Gaussian distribution, which
from the surrounding. This exponential decay of droplets average
can be correlated by two Gaussian functions as given in Eqs. (2)
temperature can be described by an exponential function as given
and (3), where Umax and Vmax are the maximum axial velocity
in Eq. (4),
and radial velocity on each spray cross-section, R and z are radial
distance and spray axial distance, respectively. T  T min  z
 2 ! ¼ exp 0:22 ð4Þ
T s  T min d
U 1 R=z  0:175
¼ 1:386  1:333 exp  ð2Þ
U max 2 0:11 where Tmin and Ts are the droplets minimum temperature and sat-
urated temperature at the atmospheric pressure. Eventually, the
 2 ! centerline temperature reaches a minimum value of 59.2 °C at
V 1 R=z  0:179
¼ 1:153  0:998 exp  ð3Þ z = 140 mm where the latent heat for evaporation equals to the con-
V max 2 0:094
vective heat transfer. From z = 140 mm to z = 150 mm, the temper-
ature fluctuates near the minimum temperature. At z = 150 mm,
however, one can see a sudden large increasement in the centerline
temperature. At z = 180 mm, the centerline temperature rises to the
boiling point of R134a, indicating a complete evaporation of all
1.0
50 mm droplets. Afterwards, the spray becomes a mixture of R134a vapor
0.8 (a) 90 mm and air. By carefully examining our high-speed camera photo in
130 mm
0.6 170 mm
U/Umax

Fitting curve
0.4 20

0.2
Temperature, T (oC)

0
0.0
1.0
(b)
0.8 -20
V/Vmax

o
0.6 Taver=-34.5 C
z =10 mm
0.4 -40 o
30 mm -46.1 C
0.2 o
80 mm -55.8 C
0.0 -60
0.00 0.04 0.08 0.12 0.16 0.20 0.0 0.4 0.8 1.2 1.6 2.0
R/z Time, t (s)

Fig. 7. Variation of the non-dimensional velocities, (a) axial velocity and (b) radial Fig. 8. Typical droplets temperature readings obtained during measurements.
velocity as a function of the non-dimensional radial distance. (Three centerline locations: 10, 30 and 80 mm from the nozzle exit).
4466 Z. Zhifu et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012) 4460–4468

-20 the latter as the ‘‘Spray Thermal Length’’ (STL). As indicated by

o
Tsat=-26.07 C the name itself, the ‘‘Cold Spray Distance’’ refers to the spray dis-
tance where the spray maintains a cold temperature around
-30 60 °C while the ‘‘Spray Thermal Length’’ refers to a total spray
Temperature ( C)

length where liquid droplets exist. For the present R134a spray,
o

Fitting curve
-40 zCSD the dimensionless CSD is about ZCSD = 185 and dimensionless STL
is about ZSTL = 235.
zMTD
zSTL
-50
3.3.3. Temperature profile of the whole spray
o
Tsat=-26.07 C Fig. 10 shows the radial temperature profiles in the R134a spray
-60 at five spray distances from 10 to 100 mm. As one can see, there is
a strong dynamic variation of the droplet temperature in both ra-
0 50 100 150 200 dial and axial directions. In the region near the exit of the nozzle
Axial distance, z (mm) (z < 50 mm), the radial temperature at a given spray distance
shows a ‘‘W’’ shape with high temperatures at the central region.
Fig. 9. Variation of the centerline droplets temperature of R134a spray as a function
of the spray distance (z) from the exit of the nozzle.
Because of the very limited air entrainment in the central region
near the nozzle, there will be a core region where liquid droplets
experience a high vapor concentration in the spray and fairly weak
Fig. 2a, we find that the light intensity transits from white to dim surface evaporation. Therefore, such a core region is made of dense
pink1 at the same spray distance, confirming the transition from a droplets or some unbroken liquid with a fairly high temperature
droplet spray to a gas mixture. near the boiling point (26.2 °C) of the R134a at the atmospheric
Several interesting thermal characteristics of an R134a spray pressure. Along the radial direction from the centerline, the droplet
can be observed from Fig. 9. For example, we find that the droplet temperature decreases firstly to a minimum value and then in-
temperature near the exit, e.g. at z = 5 mm, is already well below creases again. As the spray expands quickly along the radial direc-
the boiling point of R134a at the atmospheric pressure, which sug- tion at the exit of the nozzle, the liquid droplets lose much energy
gests that liquid superheating and flashing boiling takes place due to the strong evaporation and insufficient convective heating
within the nozzle tube or very near the exit region of the nozzle from the surrounding, which leads to the reduction of temperature.
(z < 5 mm). The thermal measurement is in consistent with our As the droplets fly further away from the center, they quickly dis-
high-speed camera observation as well as those by Vu and Aguilar perse as air entrainment penetrates deeper into the spray core, as
[26]. Spray formation takes place in the region near the exit of the demonstrated by our high-speed camera photo in Fig. 2b (white
nozzle and the droplets become thermal equilibrium with the sur- core region). On the other hand, at the outer periphery of the spray,
rounding pressure in a very short distance. droplets experience a warm air with little R134a vapor, convective
Another interesting feature is the minimum spray temperature heating will dominate droplet evaporation, leading to the increas-
and the distance to reach this minimum temperature. The present ement in the droplet temperature again.
minimum temperature of 59.2 °C is almost identical to 60 °C The ‘‘W’’ shape distribution of the radial temperature is mainly
measured by Yildiz et al. [25] who used larger nozzle sizes (1– observed in the region of the first 50 mm spray distance and the
4 mm in diameter). It can be easily understood that the minimum centerline temperature diminishes continuously along the spray
temperature corresponds to the situation where the heating of the direction as shown in Fig. 9. Fig. 10 shows that the central high
droplet by the surrounding gas is balanced by evaporation at the temperature core disappears completely at about z = 50 mm, and
droplet surface. Before reaching the minimum temperature, the la- one finds a larger spray core region with a uniform temperature
tent heat carried away from the droplet by evaporation is larger surrounded by a warm outer region. As the spray flies further
than the heat transferred into the droplet from warm air, while downstream, this uniform temperature core region expands
after reaching the minimum temperature, the droplet evaporation
slows down and the convective heating becomes dominated. The
latter can explain the fast increasement of the droplet temperature
in the region between z = 150 and z = 180 mm. T (oC)
12 -60-50-40-30 -60-50-40-30
Polanco et al. [5] proposed a concept of ‘‘minimum temperature -60-50-40-30 -60-50-40-30
-60-50-40-30
distance’’ which ‘‘defines the end of the boiling and nucleation pro-
cess, and the start of the mechanical processes.’’ It is not clear, 8
Radial distance, R (mm)

however, what is the meaning of ‘‘the mechanical processes’’ to

the present authors. Instead, we can define a similar ‘‘minimum RSTW
4
temperature distance’’ (MTD) as the spray distance when the drop- RSCW
let temperature reaches minimum. In present case, the minimum
temperature distance is zMTD = 140 mm, or non-dimensionalized 0
value of Z = z/d = 170, where d is the inner diameter of the nozzle.
It is noticed that these data fall in the range of the dimensionless -4
‘‘Minimum Spray Distance’’ of 150–170 as reported in the litera-
ture [5]. Fig. 9 also shows that there are other two characteristic
-8
thermal lengths in this spray, i.e. the spray distance at which sud-
den heating of droplets takes place and the spray distance where
the average temperature of droplets reaches the boiling point. -12
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
We can name the former as the ‘‘Cold Spray Distance’’ (CSD) and
Axial distance, z (mm)
1
For interpretation of color in Fig.2, the reader is referred to the web version of this Fig. 10. Radial temperature profiles in R134a spray at five spray distances: z = 10,
article. 30, 50, 80 and 100 mm.
 Z. Zhifu et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012) 4460–4468 4467

12 Some interesting observations can be made from such a plot. First

of all, fast expansion of the spray near the nozzle is clearly demon-
strated if one notices that the nozzle diameter is less than 1 mm
Radial Distance, R (mm)

9 while the spray width within 1 mm spray distance expands to

more than 3 mm. Such an expansion in the spray formation is fairly
RSTW
unique for the present R134a spray comparing to superheated
6 water spray [19,20]. Near the nozzle exit, the thermal plot clearly
shows a warm core region that is extended to z = 40 mm along
the central line. The axial distance from z = 40 to z = 50 mm is a
RSCW
transitional stage in which the warm core region has disappeared
3
gradually. Fig. 12 also shows the uniform cold region within the
spray in the downstream of the spray axial distance beyond
50 mm (z > 50 mm). We can also notice that there is always a
0 warm shell surrounding the central cold region. In addition, the
0 20 40 60 80 100
Axial Distance, z (mm) magnified high-speed camera photo clearly demonstrates the
development of spray from an early relatively stable spray to a
Fig. 11. Variation of the two thermal widths (RSTW and RSCW) as a function of the more unstable one, as indicated by the sudden increase in the
spray distance. spray width near z = 80 mm.

outward slowly and the value of the temperature also decreases

continuously. 4. Conclusions
Two radial thermal lengths can be defined by examining the ra-
dial temperature distribution at any given spray distance, the spray Experiments have been conducted to investigate the spray and
thermal width (STW) RSTW and the spray cold width (SCW) RSCW, as thermal characteristics of R134a two-phase flashing spray. High-
indicated by the dash lines in Fig. 10. STW here refers to the radial speed camera photos show fast expansion of the spray at the exit
width of the spray at a given spray distance, enclosed by the iso- of the nozzle, leading to a wide spray angle. The PDPA measure-
therm of the boiling point of the refrigerant. Beyond RSTW there ment results show that there exist a quick reduction in droplets
should be no liquid droplets. SCW refers to the cold region within diameter along the centerline and acceleration in the axial velocity
the spray where the droplet temperature is low. For the case of near the nozzle exit due to the explosive atomization of this flash-
spray cooling, RSCW represents the overall cooling spot of the spray, ing spray. The radial variations of the droplets number, diameter
while SCW indicates the central core cooling region. Fig. 11 plots and velocities suggest that the spray shows a poly-disperse charac-
the variation of such two thermal widths as a function of the spray teristic close to the nozzle exit and it becomes more uniform in the
distance. downstream. In addition, the radial variations of the non-dimen-
To further visualize the thermal field of the R134a spray, a two- sional velocities are self-similar and two empirical equations were
dimensional (z  R) temperature field is plotted based on the mea- proposed to describe the non-dimensional velocities.
sured temperature data within the spray distance of 100 mm and The temperature data shows that the thermal field of the spray
compared with a high-speed camera photo, as given in Fig. 12. consists of three regions, a hot core region near the exit of the noz-
zle, a cold region with uniform low temperature in the down-
stream, and a warm periphery. The hot core region shows a ‘‘W’’
shape temperature profile in the radial direction. Two thermal
widths, i.e. the spray thermal width (RSTW) and spray cold width
(RSCW), are defined to describe the radial variation of the droplets
temperature. The variation of the centerline droplets temperature
can be characterized by three axial thermal lengths, minimum
temperature distance (zMTD), Spray Thermal Length (zSTL), and Cold
Spray Distance (zCSD). An exponential equation has been developed
to describe the temperature decay from the nozzle exit to zCSD.
Additionally, quantitative data have been obtained for those char-
acteristic lengths.

Acknowledgements

This work was jointly supported by Chang Jiang Scholars Pro-

gram of the Ministry of Education of China and Li KaShing Founda-
tion of Hong Kong (G.-X. Wang, 2006–2009) as well as the
Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
(2011jdhz35, xjj20100214). Also, we acknowledge Institutional
support from the State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in
Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University.

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