Breakup of a liquid jet in supersonic crossflow

A theoretical study of the breakup of a circular liquid jet injected transversely into a supersonic air stream is conducted. Two different criteria for breakup are explored in the context of a previously developed model for the behavior of liquid jets in compressible crossflow (Heister et al., 1989). The local sonic point criterion first proposed by Schetz, et al. (1980) is explored, in addition to an auxiliary criterion put forth by Clark (1964) based on surface-tension stability. It is found that the local sonic point appears to provide a more reasonable approximation to the actual location of jet breakup, based on comparisons with limited experimental data.