Monodisperse monocomponent fuel droplet heating and evaporation

Abstract

The results of numerical and experimental studies of heating and evaporation of monodisperse acetone, ethanol, 3-pentanone, n-heptane, n-decane and n-dodecane droplets in an ambient air of fixed temperature and atmospheric pressure are reported. The numerical model took into account the finite thermal conductivity of droplets and recirculation inside them based on the effective thermal conductivity model and the analytical solution to the heat conduction equation inside droplets. The effects of interaction between droplets are taken into account based on the experimentally determined corrections to Nusselt and Sherwood numbers. It is pointed out that the interactions between droplets lead to noticeable reduction of their heating in the case of ethanol, 3-pentanone, n-heptane, n-decane and n-dodecane droplets, and reduction of their cooling in the case of acetone. Although the trends of experimentally observed droplet temperatures and radii are the same as predicted by the model taking into account the interaction between droplets, the actual values of the predicted droplet temperatures can differ from the observed ones by up to about 8 K, and the actual values of the predicted droplet radii can differ from the observed ones by up to about 2%. It is concluded that the effective thermal conductivity model, based on the analytical solution to the heat conduction equation inside droplets, can predict the observed average temperature of droplets with possible errors not exceeding several K, and observed droplet radii with possible errors not exceeding 2% in most cases. These results allow us to recommend the implementation of this model into CFD codes and to use it for multidimensional modelling of spray heating and evaporation based on these codes.