Evaporation Dynamics in Dilute Turbulent Jet Sprays

Evaporation of dispersed droplets within a turbulent flow is of crucial importance in several applications (Jenny et al, Prog Energy Combust Sci 38(6):846–887, 2012, [1]). A typical example consists in designing innovative internal combustion engines, capable to increase combustion efficiency and reduce pollutants emission levels. These goals are directly related to the accurate control of the vaporization process which, in turns, affects the mixing homogeneity. In particular, turbulent sprays are complex multiphase flows in which liquid evaporating droplets are dispersed within a turbulent gaseous phase. The evaporation process occurs via mass, momentum and energy exchanges between the two phases causing the spray dynamics to be a challenging modeling task due to the presence of unsteady, multi-scale and multiphase processes.