Abstract
This paper is concerned with numerical solutions for flows of a viscous incompressible liquid jet emanating from a small nozzle.
The time-dependent Navier-Stokes equation is solved numerically by utilizing the finite-difference method. Our numerical scheme presented here is basically the same as the MAC method but is improved so as to be capable of estimating with high accuracy by comparatively simple procedure the surface tension, which plays essential role for droplet formation. The velocity and pressure fields in the jet are computed and the change in the shape of surface with time is followed until droplets are formed.
The results were compared with experiments for a number of inlet velocity distributions or various values of other parameters under the consideration of nonlinearity, for which analytical treatment of linearized Navier-Stokes equation has never been successful.
The agreement between experimental and computational results is excellent and our method provides sufficient information to describe the process of droplet formation theoretically.
