Supercritical drop emission in strongly convective flows

Supercritical droplet dynamics in forced-convective environment is numerically studied. A cryogenic oxygen droplet gasifying in axisymmetric gaseous nitrogen stream is analyzed by solving complete sets of time-dependent conservation equations of mass, momentum, energy, and species concentrations. Full account is taken of thermodynamic non-idealities and transport anomaly using a unified property evaluation scheme based on the fundamental equation of state and the extended corresponding-state principle. Results show that extent of thermodynamic and flow properties controls the droplet gasification and deformation. As the velocity of gas stream increases, the droplet aspect ratio gradually increases with pressure. The droplet lifetime is reduced primarily due to augmented convective momentum of nitrogen gas increasing with increase in ambient pressure. With reduction of diffusivity at high pressure, boundary layer at the rear of the droplet is detached. Occurrence of recirculation at the droplet interior is not perceptible.