Simulation of droplet generation from injection water into air

Steam infusion is a pasteurization method used for liquid food such as milk. As the first step in the optimization of the flow rate of milk in the steam infusion chamber, two computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations predicted droplet generation from injection water into air and an experiment was carried out. Model 1 only consisted of a nozzle and a region of air. Model 2 consisted of a nozzle, a stainless steel pipe and a region of air. These results were evaluated by the breakup length and projected area. The breakup lengths in the experiment, Model 1 and Model 2 were 94.0 mm, 254.6 mm and 92.1 mm, respectively. The breakup length in Model 1 differed from the experimental data. The projected area in the experiment and Model 2 was 524.5 mm2 and 536.6 mm2, respectively. Both results for Model 2 agreed with the experimental results. Model 2 successfully expressed droplet generation.