Resumen

SALINAS-TAPIA, Humberto; ROBLES-ROVELO, Cruz Octavio; CHAVEZ-CARLOS, Dagoberto  y  BAUTISTA-CAPETILLO, Carlos Francisco. Geometric and Kinematic Characterization of a Spray Using the PTV Optical Technique. Tecnol. cienc. agua [online]. 2014, vol.5, n.3, pp.125-140. ISSN 2007-2422.

Natural or induced phenomena involving the movement of drops drive the analysis to determine soil loss from erosion and changes that could occur in the infiltration rate as a result of the energy with which they impact the soil surface. The diameter and velocity define the magnitude of the effect. To characterize these variables, a variety of techniques have been applied (water-sensitive paper, flour, oil immersion, optics and photography). The present investigation uses particle tracking velocimetry (PTV) to characterize the drops emitted by a spray flow. The development of PTV partly arose from the analysis of the sedimentation velocity in biphasic flows, which requires tracer particles to evaluate a phenomenon. Nevertheless, the experimental characteristics of the work required omitting the use of these elements, and therefore adjustments to the scheme proposed by Salinas et al. (2006) were indispensable. The drops were produced at a constant hydraulic pressure of 175 kPa and the photographs were taken at a distance of 4.5 m with three different sprayer heights. The information collected (diameters and velocities) enabled constructing velocity vector fields. The results presented are based on the analysis of 1 582 drops, for which mean diameters of 0.39, 0.55 and 0.34 mm and velocities of 4.02, 3.70 and 3.63 ms-1 were obtained, with heights of 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 m, respectively.

Palabras llave : Characterization of drops; optical technique; PTV; diameter; velocity; statistical analysis.