The Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Creationism (2018)

pushed out, large shear forces are generated on and within the volume of the liquid which repeatedly shatter it by overcoming its surface tension and viscosity in a cascade, producing a range of droplet sizes in the emanating spray. Many advantages of the liquid atomization seen in the bombardier beetle, such as high throw ratio, low chamber pressure, and overall energetic efficiency are also seen in the experimental system, despite it being on a much larger scale. The experimental system also expands upon the liquid atomization method by decoupling the exhaust valve from the chamber pressure, allowing more control over an already versatile system. 3. Biomimetic Applications The experimental facility described here is a classic example of biomimetics where the study of naturally occurring systems inspires novel engineering technologies. There are a number of possible applications. This is primarily due to the wide range of spray characteristics which can be achieved using this novel approach, and because, other than the fuel application, all that is required is water. There are also related energy efficiencies inherent in the system described in this paper, and using water can replace environmentally unfriendly substances currently in use for aerosols and some other spray applications. A. Fuel Injectors A very important application is to fuel injectors, and this is one of the potential applications currently being pursued by Swedish Biomimetics 3000 ® Ltd. The liquid used for this application would be gasoline fuel, but the experiments using water show that the applicationwill still be straightforward. The droplet size distribution in fig. 7 at the lowest end of the range of the system shows why this system is a potential fuel injector technology in that it can produce a fine mist of fuel droplets. Because very small droplet sizes can be produced, this results in droplets with a high surface area to volume ratio. Consequently this droplet size distribution is particularly suited to combustion applications, such as fuel injection, etc., as the larger overall surface area means that the fuel burns much more efficiently. Current fuel injectors primarily work on the principle of pressure atomization, where liquid is atomized by using high pressure to force it through a small opening to create a fine spray. McIntosh and Lawrence ◀ Design of the bombardier beetle ▶ 2018 ICC 273 Figure 7 Typical droplet size distribution from experimental facility system set for producing the smallest droplets Figure 8 Typical droplet size distribution from experimental facility system set for producing a twin mode distribution of droplet sizes.