Dynamics of a thin radial liquid flow

The present work proposes an extension of the existing analytical development on the radial spread of a liquid jet over a horizontal surface to the case of a thin radial flow. When the gap, H, between the jet nozzle and the plate is reduced the discharging area may be smaller than the inlet area leading to an increase of the main flow velocity downstream of the thin cylindrical opening. This increase of velocity, de fined here as 1/alpha , can be related to the relative gap of the nozzle H/R with R the nozzle pipe radius. Numerical computations with a volume of fluid method were realised with for H/R ranging from 0.2 to 3 and with flow rates Q of 3 and 6 l/min1. The results of these computations allowed to express alpha in respect of H/R. Taking in account the flow acceleration allowed to extend the set of equation from the jet impacting flow to the thin cylindrical opening flow. The liquid layer thickness and the surface velocity diff er with a maximum error of 4% between the flow predicted by the model and computations. Main discrepancies appear in the region close to the nozzle where the analytical model assumption of a constant velocity outside the boundary layer is not valid. However, further downstream the model and the computations are in good agreement.