The Effect of Coagulation of Water Droplets on Their Size Distribution in the Operating Part of an Air-Cooler Device

Abstract

Mathematical simulation of coagulation of droplets of finite number of size fractions of a polydisperse mixture, injected by a nozzle into the region of an air-cooler unit along air flux motion direction, was performed. Sets of differential equations describing dependences of droplet fraction concentrations, their densities, as well as masses of droplets in each fraction on time, were solved using the fourth-order Runge–Kutta method. Negligibility of the impact of heat-mass exchange between the substance of droplets and surrounding air on changing their sizes during motion from the nozzle to the operating part of the device is shown. Decomposition of droplets is not simulated, since the critical Weber number is not reached in the considered operating regime of the air-cooler. Results of simulation of droplet coagulation in turbulent air flux show that distributions of droplets by sizes near the surface of a spraying nozzle do not coincide, which proves the necessity of accounting this process in simulation of ice coating of aircrafts in ground conditions.