Impact of atomizer design on slurry fuel atomization behavior

The paper presents experimental findings on the atomization characteristics of coal–water slurries with and without petrochemicals. The fuels were based on flame coal filter cake (slime), which is a typical coal processing waste, flame coal of different particle sizes, wood biomass (sawdust), used transformer oil, and water. The atomized flow characteristics—droplet size and velocity as well as jet angle—were found to depend on the atomizer dimensions and slurry rheology. The experimental data were used to calculate the slurry atomization efficiency factor. The findings were generalized to provide a mathematical description of how the slurry composition and atomizer geometry affect the slurry atomization behavior. Approximations were obtained for atomization characteristics that can be used to predict the jet angle as well as droplet radii and velocities. The developed mathematical tool can be employed to calculate the spraying characteristics when using devices like external-mix twin-fluid atomizers. The approach proposed for data generalization can be applied to adapt the set of approximation equations to other types of nozzles.