Effects of cavitation and hydraulic flip on liquid film formed by jet impinging on the wall

The technology of the liquid film formed by jet impinging on the wall is widely applied in the aerospace, steel quenching, and cleaning. In this paper, the spreading and evolution of the liquid film are experimentally studied. The effects of the cavitation and hydraulic flip on the film are examined, and it is identified that they are a serious problem of the nozzle design. Results demonstrate that the jets formed by using a nozzle with 120° contraction angle and 3.5 mm outlet length sequentially produce the cavitation and hydraulic flip as the Reynolds number increases. Small contraction angle or long outlet length promotes the stability of the discharge coefficient and jet states and inhibits the occurrence of the cavitation and hydraulic flip. For the flip jet, the jet cross section is axially switched. Several patterns of the liquid film, such as the gravity flow, gravity flow with dry patch formation, rivulet flow with outward streams, and outward flow with triple rivulets, etc., are observed as the jet regime and inclination angle change. Particularly, for the film formed by the cavitation jet, the rivulets and dry patches emerge in the tail of the film; meanwhile, a lot of splashing droplets are generated. For the film generated by the flip jet, the bifurcation of the film shapes occurs. An impressive flow feature is that the two sprays are formed when the flip jet impinges on the wall, which is caused by the collision of the fluids in the secondary impingement zones.