Research progress on gas–liquid interface evolution and vorticity field mechanisms in turbulent atomization

Abstract Liquid atomization is a multiscale gas–liquid breakup process in which a continuous interface evolves into droplets through the growth of interfacial waves, three-dimensional deformation, local thinning, topological rupture, and capillary breakup. Classical Kelvin–Helmholtz (KH), Rayleigh–Taylor (RT), Tollmien–Schlichting (TS), and Rayleigh–Plateau (RP) mechanisms have provided essential interpretations for disturbance amplification and stage-dependent breakup; however, no single instability framework can fully account for the strongly unsteady, three-dimensional, and multiscale transition from surface-wave development to droplet formation. This review summarizes progress in turbulent atomization from a vorticity perspective, with emphasis on vorticity generation at gas–liquid interfaces, vorticity transport in turbulent shear layers, coherent vortical structures, and the interfacial topology cascade from lobes and liquid sheets to holes, bridges, ligaments, and droplets. Rather than formulating a closed predictive model, the review synthesizes an interpretive framework that relates near-interface vorticity, coherent-vortex evolution, local strain, curvature, and capillary effects to interfacial thinning and breakup. It further highlights the need to move beyond spatial correspondence between vortical structures and breakup events toward time-resolved, verifiable causal links among vorticity evolution, interfacial topology change, and droplet formation.