Experimental characterisation of sprays resulting from impacts of liquid-containing projectiles

Highlights: • Detailed characterisation of sprays resulting from the impacts of water-filled metal projectiles on a hard wall. • Experimental measurements of spray speed, direction and droplet size. • Detailed analysis of overall spray evolution. • The spray characterisation information can be used in CFD analyses of aircraft impact fires. - Abstract: Modelling and analysing fires following aircraft impacts requires information about the behaviour of liquid fuel. In this study, we investigated sprays resulting from the impacts of water-filled metal projectiles on a hard wall. The weights of the projectiles were in the range of 38–110 kg, with 8.6–68 kg water, and the impact speeds varied between 96 and 169 m/s. The overall spray behaviour was observed with high-speed video cameras. Ultra-high-speed cameras were used in backlight configuration for measuring the droplet size and velocity distributions. The results indicate that the liquid leaves the impact position as a thin sheet of spray in a direction perpendicular to the projectile velocity. The initial spray speeds were 1.5–2.5 times the impact speed, and the Sauter mean diameters were in the 147–344 μm range. This data can be used as boundary conditions in CFD fire analyses, considering the two-phase fuel flow. The overall spray observations, including the spray deceleration rate, can be used for validating the model.