Master thesis and internship[BR]- Master's thesis : Simulation and Validation of Secondary Breakup Phenomena in Low Weber Number Water Sprays Using OpenFOAM[BR]- Integration internship

Abstract

In this thesis, secondary breakup models are investigated and validated for water sprays under low Weber number conditions inspired by the Vessel Auxiliary Cooling System (RVACS). Despite the widespread use of spray cooling in everyday life, a gap remains in the literature for secondary breakup under low Weber number conditions.

Using the Eulerian-Lagrangian solver within OpenFOAM, the water spray was modeled to investigate the adaptability and performance of secondary breakup models, including Taylor Analogy Breakup (TAB), Reitz-Diwakar (RD), and Reitz-Kelvin-Helmholtz and Rayleigh-Taylor (RKHT) models, for low Weber number sprays.

The study is conducted in two main parts, which include the numerical investigation of the existing model dynamics and the validation of its applicability. In the first case, parametric sensitivity analysis is conducted in a controlled domain, and the effect of model coefficients is examined over the Southern Mean Diameter (SMD) distribution and Weber number. In the second case, models are validated against the experimental configuration, which allows the observe direct comparison between numerical results and measurement data.

The results show that, among the secondary breakup models tested, the Reitz-KHRT model provides the most reliable prediction for Southern Mean Diameter and velocities in low Weber number conditions. The findings emphasize the importance of accurate implementation, model tuning, and validation for predictive spray simulations in safety-critical applications.