The breakup and atomization of a viscous liquid jet

Based on the linear analysis of stability, a dispersion equation is deduced which delineates the evolution of a general 3-dimensional disturbance on the free surface of an incompressible viscous liquid jet. With respect to the spatial growing disturbance mode, the numerical results obtained from the solution of the dispersion equation reveal that a dimensionless parameterJ eexists. AsJ e>1, the axisymmetric disturbance mode is most unstable; and whenJ e<1, the asymmetric disturbances come into being, their growth rate increases with the decrease, ofJ e, till one of them becomes the most unstable disturbance. The breakup of a low-speed liquid jet results from the developing of axisymmetric disturbances, whose instability is produced by the surface tension; while the atomization of a high-speed liquid jet is brought about by the evolution of nonaxisymmetric disturbance, whose instability is caused by the aerodynamic force on the interface between the jet and the ambient gas.