On the interaction of water droplet with a shock wave: Experiment and numerical simulation

The work is devoted to experimental and computational studies of the behavior of water drop in a flow behind incident shock wave and verification of calculations on this basis. High-Speed visualization of the water drop interaction with the flow behind incident shock wave was obtained in the experiments at shock wave Mach numbers Ms=1.109–1.34 and Weber numbers We = 208–2260. Conditions consistent with the experiments are simulated in the calculations. The numerical approach is based on the use of the volume of fluid (VOF) method to resolve the phase interface, large eddy simulation (LES) model to describe turbulence, and adapted dynamic grid technology. The structure of the flow near and in the wake of a drop, the features of the flow around a drop, the type of the shape evolution, and the character of the mass entrainment were studied. Comparison of simulation results with experimental data indicates good agreement with the main integral characteristics of the process, i.e. morphology, dynamics, and induction time of droplet breakup.