Publications

Aerodynamic breakup and secondary drop formation for a liquid metal column in a shock-induced cross-flow

Chen, Yi; DeMauro, Edward P.; Wagner, Justin W.; Arienti, Marco A.; Guildenbecher, Daniel R.; Farias, Paul A.; Grasser, Thomas W.; Sanderson, Patrick D.; Albert, Samuel W.; Turpin, Aaron M.; Sealy, William; Ketchum, Remington S.

The breakup of liquid metals is of relevance to powder formation, thermal spray coatings, liquid metal cooling systems, investigations of accident scenarios, and model validation. In this work, a column of liquid Galinstan, a room-temperature liquid metal alloy, is studied in a shock-induced cross-flow. Backlit experiments are used to characterize breakup morphology and digital in-line holography is used to quantitatively measure the size and speed of secondary droplets. Two-dimensional simulations are also developed in order to help understand the underlying mechanisms that drive breakup behavior. Results show that although breakup morphologies are similar for water and Galinstan at the same Weber number, the breakup distance, secondary droplet size, and secondary droplet shapes differ. Evidence indicates that secondary droplet formation may be related to the Weber number, density ratio, the convective velocity and other effects.