Transient heat transfer from shrinking LOX-drop

Abstract

In order to achieve prescribed experimental conditions in wind tunnels, the nitrogen-oxygen mixture is enriched by injection of liquid oxygen (LOX) upstream of methane burners. The objective of the study is to determine the LOX drop evaporation rate, which is dominated by heat transfer from the air stream (mass transfer mechanism can be later coupled with the solution from the present work). Since the concentration of drops in the surrounding gas is quite high, the concept of infinite medium cannot be utilized. Drop evaporation, as part of system's mass balance, is an important source-term in the finite-difference 2/3-dimensional network terms of laboratory-system (Eulerian) coordinates, while individual drop behavior, including its thermal history, is analyzed in Lagrangian coordinates.