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Nanofluids have become more and more attractive to the modern industry due to their high performance in heat transfer and combustion. As one of the key influencing factors, the atomization mechanism of nanofluids induced by airflow is more complex than that of pure liquids, which has attracted great attention recently. In this study, the spray characteristics of TiO2–propylene glycol nanofluids were investigated by focusing on the effects of nano-TiO2 additives on atomization. On the basis of high-speed shadow imaging, the spray morphology of the base fluid injected from an air atomizing nozzle under different pressures was analyzed first. Then a laser particle size analyzer was used to obtain the droplet size distribution of the nanofluids. The air pressure at the inlet of the atomizer was found to have more contribution to the atomization of nanofluids. And when the air pressure exceeded 0.35 MPa, the Sauter mean diameter (D32) of the base fluid droplets was insensitive to the change of air pressure. Subsequently, the contribution of nanoparticles to atomization was discussed. An empirical correlation was proposed between the Sauter mean diameter (D32) and the dimensionless parameters such as the gas Weber number (Weg), liquid–gas momentum ratio (q), and the volume fraction of nano-TiO2, etc. Results indicated that adding nanoparticles enhanced the jet stability by increasing the viscosity at a low jet velocity, while the jet instability was increased due to the nanoparticles promoting the cavitation at a high jet velocity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanofluids are attracting attention as future energy carriers owing to their high performance for improving combustion and heat transfer. In this study, the macroscopic characteristics of nanofluid jets in a subsonic gaseous crossflow were investigated by focusing on the influence of nanoparticle additives on the breakup process. Based on a distribution map of the image grayscale standard deviation, we propose an improved method to process transverse injection shadowgraphs. A simplified model of the transition mechanism from column breakup to surface breakup at a small Weber number was established. The effects of nanoparticles on the jet trajectory and column fracture position were analyzed according to the deviations from the pure liquid. To interpret the effects of the nanoparticles, a new nondimensional parameter was introduced into the empirical correlation of the column fracture position. The results indicated that at low concentrations of nanoparticles, the surface tension of the nanofluids increased slightly, while the viscosity increased significantly (by up to 23%). These changes in the physical properties had little effect on the breakup regimes or jet trajectory. Moreover, the nanoparticles promoted cavitation inside the liquid column, resulting in an additional primary breakup mode for the nanofluids. Consequently, the length of the column fracture was reduced by up to 20% compared with that of the basic fluid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]