EXPERIMENTAL STUDY AND IMAGE PROCESSING-BASED MEASUREMENT OF SPRAY BREAKUP LENGTH IN MICROTURBINE VAPORIZER TUBES

Abstract

Measuring spray breakup length is a critical requirement for optimizing vaporizer tube design in microturbines. High-speed photography is a widely used modern measurement technique; however, its application in vaporizer tubes requires accurate image processing algorithms to account for light refraction through quartz tube walls and noise from fuel density variations. This study develops an algorithm that combines adaptive thresholding with Sobel edge detection, optimized for the vaporizer tube environment. Experiments were conducted at injection pressures ranging from 1.38 to 4.14 bar, with more than 4000 images analyzed per condition to ensure statistical reliability. The results show that breakup length increases from 3.2 mm to 6.8 mm as injection pressure rises, with clear periodic oscillations observed. The algorithm achieves an accuracy of ±0.01 mm with full automation, providing an effective tool for research on vaporizer tube optimization in microturbines.