Infrared thermography and numerical study of vaporization characteristics of pure and blended bio-fuel droplets

    Authors

    A. Saha; R. Kumar;S. Basu

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Int. J. Heat Mass Transf.

    Keywords

    Multi-component droplets; Bio-fuel; IR thermography; Levitated droplet; EVAPORATION; COMBUSTION; STREAM; SPRAYS; HEAT; Thermodynamics; Engineering, Mechanical; Mechanics

    Abstract

    The combustion dynamics and stability are dependent on the quality of mixing and vaporization of the liquid fuel in the pre-mixer. The vaporization characteristics of different blends of bio-fuel droplets injected into the air stream in the pre-mixer have been modeled. Two major alternate fuels analyzed are ethanol and Rapeseed Methyl Esters (RME). Ethanol is being used as a substitute of gasoline, while RME has been considered as an alternative for diesel. In the current work, the vaporization characteristics of a single droplet in a simple pre-mixer has been studied for pure ethanol and RME in a hot air jet at a temperature of 800 K. In addition, the behavior of the fuels when they are mixed with conventional fuels like gasoline and diesel is also studied. Temperature gradients and vaporization efficiency for different blends of bio-conventional fuel mixture are compared with one another. Smaller droplets vaporize faster than larger droplets ensuring homogenous mixture. The model was validated using an experiment involving convection heating of acoustically levitated fuel droplets and IR-thermography to visualize and quantify the vaporization characteristics of different bio-fuel blends downstream of the pre-mixer. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

    Journal Title

    International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

    Volume

    53

    Issue/Number

    19-20

    Publication Date

    1-1-2010

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    3862

    Last Page

    3873

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000280484400028

    ISSN

    0017-9310

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