Effect of Nanoparticle Additives on Spray Dynamics in a Pressure-Swirl Atomizer: A Numerical Study

Effect of Nanoparticle Additives on Spray Dynamics in a Pressure-Swirl Atomizer: A Numerical Study | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Effect of Nanoparticle Additives on Spray Dynamics in a Pressure-Swirl Atomizer: A Numerical Study Arvin Poushand, Hossein Mahdavy-Moghaddam This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7461888/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract This study numerically investigates the influence of nanoparticle additives on the spray characteristics of liquid fuels within a pressure-swirl atomizer. A Lagrangian-based approach coupled with the Discrete Phase Model (DPM) was employed in ANSYS Fluent to model transient multiphase nanofluid flow. Fischer-Tropsch (FT) and RP-3 fuels were mixed with aluminum (Al) and aluminum oxide (Al₂O₃) nanoparticles. Simulations explored weight fractions from 0–2%, focusing on droplet velocity and size distribution. Results show increasing nanoparticle content significantly enhances atomization. For FT fuel, maximum droplet velocity reduced from approximately 28.0 m/s to 26.9 m/s with 2.0 wt% aluminum oxide nanoparticles. Concurrently, maximum droplet diameter decreased from 1.30 × 10⁻⁴ m to 9.1 × 10⁻⁵ m with Al nanoparticles and to 7.7 × 10⁻⁵ m with Al₂O₃ nanoparticles at 2.0 wt% loading. Similar trends were observed for RP-3 fuel, where both velocity and droplet size decreased with increasing nanoparticle concentration. These findings underscore the potential of nanoparticle-mixed fuels to improve spray quality, critical for combustion efficiency in advanced propulsion and energy systems. The numerical model demonstrated strong agreement with available reference data, validating its predictive capability for complex nanofluid spray dynamics. Physical sciences/Engineering Physical sciences/Materials science Physical sciences/Mathematics and computing Physical sciences/Nanoscience and technology Physical sciences/Physics Nanoparticle additives Spray dynamics Pressure-swirl atomizer Discrete Phase Model Droplet size distribution Nanofluid atomization Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7461888","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":513490611,"identity":"2b9dff4c-0d73-48bb-b0a9-ab820df203e5","order_by":0,"name":"Arvin Poushand","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"K. N. 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A Lagrangian-based approach coupled with the Discrete Phase Model (DPM) was employed in ANSYS Fluent to model transient multiphase nanofluid flow. Fischer-Tropsch (FT) and RP-3 fuels were mixed with aluminum (Al) and aluminum oxide (Al₂O₃) nanoparticles. Simulations explored weight fractions from 0\u0026ndash;2%, focusing on droplet velocity and size distribution. Results show increasing nanoparticle content significantly enhances atomization. For FT fuel, maximum droplet velocity reduced from approximately 28.0 m/s to 26.9 m/s with 2.0 wt% aluminum oxide nanoparticles. Concurrently, maximum droplet diameter decreased from 1.30 \u0026times; 10⁻⁴ m to 9.1 \u0026times; 10⁻⁵ m with Al nanoparticles and to 7.7 \u0026times; 10⁻⁵ m with Al₂O₃ nanoparticles at 2.0 wt% loading. Similar trends were observed for RP-3 fuel, where both velocity and droplet size decreased with increasing nanoparticle concentration. These findings underscore the potential of nanoparticle-mixed fuels to improve spray quality, critical for combustion efficiency in advanced propulsion and energy systems. The numerical model demonstrated strong agreement with available reference data, validating its predictive capability for complex nanofluid spray dynamics.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Effect of Nanoparticle Additives on Spray Dynamics in a Pressure-Swirl Atomizer: A Numerical Study","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-09-12 04:56:23","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7461888/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":2}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"6e5ccbc6-46b6-4ba2-b618-6a70e8e31848","owner":[],"postedDate":"September 12th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":54548780,"name":"Physical sciences/Engineering"},{"id":54548781,"name":"Physical sciences/Materials science"},{"id":54548782,"name":"Physical sciences/Mathematics and computing"},{"id":54548783,"name":"Physical sciences/Nanoscience and technology"},{"id":54548784,"name":"Physical sciences/Physics"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-09-24T04:53:56+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-09-12 04:56:23","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-7461888","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-7461888","identity":"rs-7461888","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}