Development of Apparatus for Microgravity Experiments on Evaporation and Combustion of Palm Methyl Ester Droplet in High-Pressure Environments

Abstract

New apparatus for microgravity experiments was developed in order to obtain fundamental data of single droplet evaporation and combustion of palm methyl ester (PME) for understanding PME spray combustion in internal combustion engines. n-hexadecane droplet combustion and evaporation experiments were also performed to obtain single-component fuel data. Combustion experiments were performed at atmospheric pressure and room temperature. For droplet evaporation experiments, ambient temperature and pressure were varied from 473 to 873 K and 0.10 to 4.0 MPa, respectively. Microgravity conditions were employed for evaporation experiments to prevent natural convection. Droplet diameter history of a burning PME droplet is similar to that of n-hexadecane. Droplet diameter history of an evaporating PME droplet is different from that of n-hexadecane at low ambient temperatures. In the latest stage of PME droplet evaporation, temporal evaporation constant decreases remarkably. At ambient temperatures sufficiently above the boiling temperature of PME components, droplet diameter history of PME and n-hexadecane are similar to each other. Corrected evaporation lifetime τ of PME at 873 K as a function of ambient pressure was obtained at normal and microgravity. At normal gravity, τ monotonically decreases with ambient pressure. On the other hand, at microgravity, τ increases with ambient pressure, and then decreases.