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  Cornell University

MAE Publications and Papers

Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

New article: Comparison of the Burning Characteristics of Indolene and Commercial Grade Gasoline Droplets without Convection

Article: Liu YC, Savas AJ and Avedisian CT (2012). “Comparison of the Burning Characteristics of Indolene and Commercial Grade Gasoline Droplets without Convection.” Energy & Fuels 26(9): 5740-5749.

DOI

Abstract: This study reports on the droplet combustion characteristics of indolene and a commercial 87 octane-rated (no ethanol) unleaded gasoline. The experiments are performed in an environment that simplifies the gas transport to one created entirely by the evaporation process (i.e., purely radial), thereby promoting spherical symmetry of the droplet burning process under normal atmospheric pressure air. In this way, the data characterize the base case of liquid fuel combustion, whereby the flame and droplet are concentric and spherical, and the soot aggregates that form collect in a shell-like structure between the droplet and flame. The tractable flame and sooting dynamics facilitate comparisons of the burning process, while at the same time they provide benchmark data that can be useful for model development In the experiments reported here, the initial droplet diameters ranged from 0.47 mm to 0.59 mm, with an average of 0.53 +/- 0.05 mm. Indolene and gasoline were found to display remarkably similar droplet evaporation rates. However, the sooting dynamics were substantially different. Indolene droplets produced soot shells that were somewhat thicker and resided farther from the droplet surface than the soot shells surrounding gasoline droplets. Furthermore, indolene flames were comparatively larger than gasoline flames. The highly multicomponent nature of both fuels did not result in noticeable preferential vaporization effects in the evolution of droplet diameter. These results show that indolene replicates some, though not all, of the droplet combustion properties of commercial gasoline.

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