Experimental Studies on Non-Evaporating and Evaporating Sprays of n-Dodecane and n-Hexadecane

Abstract

In the present study, spray characteristics of two single component surrogates, n-dodecane and n-hexadecane, are experimentally measured and compared with the spray characteristics of diesel and Jatropha methyl ester (JME). The property differences between surrogates are similar to the property differences between diesel and JME. The spray structure is compared under non-evaporating and evaporating conditions in terms of spray-tip penetration, spray-cone angle, liquid length, vapour penetration, vapour spread angle, etc. A high pressure spray chamber with optical access has been used in the present study which allows studying sprays under ambient conditions up to a pressure of 50 bar pressure and a temperature of 900 K. Sprays are studied at injection pressures of 1000 bar and 1500 bar. The results show that sprays of n-dodecane exhibit narrower spray cone angles, similar spray-tip penetrations, around 20 shorter liquid length as compared to those of n-hexadecane. These differences between spray characteristics of surrogates are similar to those of diesel and biodiesel. Thus, experimental data of n-dodecane and n-hexadecane can help to validate CFD models for their ability to simulate the differences in spray characteristics of fuels having different physical properties. A separate comparison of spray characteristics of diesel and n-hexadecane showed that it is an acceptable surrogate for diesel in terms of non-evaporating and evaporating spray characteristics. Copyright © 2017 by the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers.