An almost universal approach to engineering modelling is based on using commercial software packages which employ standard mathematical models. In addition to these packages, in-house numerical codes have been developed which are based on numerical solutions of the underlying partial or ordinary differential equations. The modelling group at the Sir Harry Ricardo Laboratory in the School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics at the University of Brighton has developed a novel approach to engineering modelling, focused on the analysis of underlying physics of the phenomena and applying combined analytical/asymptotic and numerical techniques.
This work has been supported by nine EPSRC grants, including a grant for a project entitled ‘Modelling of breakup processes in transient Diesel fuel sprays’. This project is focused on the modelling of jet primary break-up via the stability analysis of transient jets. The results of this project have been presented in two research papers: one published in J Fluid Mechanics and the other under consideration in Physics of Fluids.
The main limitation of the models developed in these papers is that they are based on the assumption that the jets and surrounding gas are single-phase media. In real situations, however, bubbles of air are almost always present inside jets and droplets are entrained in the surrounding air. This leads us to the necessity of the analysis of multi-phase jets and mixing zones. Professor A.N. Osiptsov is one of the world leaders in disperse-mixture modelling and the stability analysis of multi-phase flows.
One of the methods which he developed for the analysis of these flows is widely known as the Osiptsov Lagrangian method (this term is widely used in fluid dynamics community: e.g. Healy, D.P, Young, J.P, 2001, Calculation of inertial particle transport using the Osiptsov Lagrangian method, 4th Int Conf. Pn Multiphase Flow, New Orleans, Paper DJ4). The method is an efficient tool for studying disperse flows with local particle accumulation regions and intersecting particle trajectories. This is why we selected him for this scheme.