Level Set Modeling of Supersonic Liquid Breakup Using The Method of Characteristics

Numerous studies have been carried out that model the breakup of liquid jets by subsonic air flow. However, its supersonic equivalent has not received enough attention due to computational complexities involved. In this study, a Method of Characteristics (MOC) based algorithm is proposed to simulate the breakup of liquid jets under supersonic conditions. A special version of the Level Set method is required to track the gas-liquid interface in the system. In the MOC-based approach, first-order hyperbolic Euler equations in the gaseous phase are reduced to the characteristic form and then compatibility relations, which do not contain derivatives in the direction normal to the characteristic surfaces, are obtained. Since the MOC reduces dimensionality of the problem by one, faster, yet accurate, solutions can be achieved in comparison to finite difference or finite volume methods. Preliminary results from our ongoing investigations will be presented.