Influences of spray and operating parameters on penetration of vaporizing fuel droplets in a gas turbine combustor

The effects of inlet spray and operating parameters on penetration and vaporization histories of fuel droplets of a liquid fuel spray injected into a turbulent swirling flow of air through a typical can type gas turbine combustor, have been evaluated from numerical solutions of the conservation equations in gas and droplet phases. The computational scheme is based on the typical stochastic separated flow model of the gas-droplet flow within the combustor. A κ–ε model with wall function treatment for near wall region has been adopted for the solution of conservative equations in gas phase. The initial spray parameters are specified by a suitable PDF size distribution and a given spray cone angle. It has been recognized that the penetration of vaporizing droplets is reduced with an increase in inlet air swirl and spray cone angle. An increase in inlet air pressure or a decrease in inlet air temperature also results in a reduction in droplet penetration. The inlet air pressure and spray cone angle are found to be the most influencing parameters in this regard.     

Combustion of liquid fuel inside inert porous media: an analytical approach

This paper presents a numerical analysis of combustion of liquid fuel droplets suspended in air inside an inert porous media. A one-dimensional heat transfer model has been developed assuming complete vaporization of oil droplets prior to their entry into the flame. The effects of absorption coefficient, emissivity of medium, flame position on radiative energy output efficiency and optimum oil droplet size at the entry, defined as the maximum size for complete vaporization before entering the combustion zone, have been presented. The inert porous medium with low absorption coefficient will produce high downstream radiative output with large oil droplet sizes.     

A model for high-pressure vaporization of droplets of complex liquid mixtures using continuous thermodynamics

This paper presents a comprehensive model for the transient high-pressure vaporization process of droplets of complex liquid mixtures with large number of components in which the mixture composition, the mixture properties, and the vapor-liquid equilibrium (VLE) are described by using the theory of continuous thermodynamics. Transport equations, which are general for the moments and independent of the distribution functions, are derived for the semi-continuous systems of both gas and liquid phases. A general treatment of the VLE is conducted which can be applied with any cubic equation of state (EOS). Relations for the properties of the continuous species are formulated. The model was further applied to calculate the sub- and super-critical vaporization processes of droplets of a representative petroleum fuel mixture - diesel fuel. The results show that the liquid mixture droplet exhibits an intrinsic transient vaporization behavior regardless of whether the pressure is sub- or super-critical. The regression rate of the liquid mixture droplet is reduced significantly during the late vaporization period. The comparison with the results of a single-component substitute fuel case emphasizes the importance of considering the multi-component nature of practical mixture fuel and the critical vaporization effects in practical applications. This paper provides a practical means for more realistically describing the high-pressure vaporization processes of practical fuels.     

Transient vaporization and burning in dense droplet arrays

Three-dimensional droplet-array combustion with an unsteady liquid-phase and a quasi-steady gas-phase is studied computationally by a generalized approach using a mass-flux potential function. Symmetric and asymmetric droplet arrays with non-uniform droplet size and non-uniform spacing are considered. Burning rates are computed and correlated with the number of droplets, an average droplet size, and an average spacing for the array through one similarity parameter for arrays as large as 1000 droplets. Total array vaporization rates are found to be maximized at a specific droplet number density that depends on liquid volume within the array. An unsteady liquid-phase model with either a uniform or a radially varying temperature distribution is coupled with the quasi-steady gas-phase solution for decane, heptane, and methanol fuels. Droplet interactions and liquid-phase heating have been shown to almost double the lifetime when compared to an isolated droplet. Depending on fuel type, initial temperature, and array geometry, droplets may initially burn with individual flames, transition to a single group flame, and transition back to individual flames as vaporization progresses. In most cases, group combustion occurs upon ignition and is the dominant mode of combustion.     

二甲醚液滴高压蒸发的数值模拟

在分析燃油液滴高压蒸发规律的基础上,考虑液滴内部的热传导过程、内部环流和非理想气体效应,建立了高压蒸发模型,并利用该模型对二甲醚(DME)单液滴的蒸发过程进行了数值模拟分析。采用状态方程法计算了DME-N2体系的气液相平衡。结果表明:高压有利于燃料液滴蒸发;即使环境压力超过燃油的临界压力,其平衡蒸发温度也未必能达到临界温度。     

Experimental investigation of water droplet–air flow interaction in a non-reacting PEM fuel cell channel

It has been well documented that water production in PEM fuel cells occurs in discrete locations, resulting in the formation and growth of discrete droplets on the gas diffusion layer (GDL) surface within the gas flow channels (GFCs). This research uses a simulated fuel cell GFC with three transparent walls in conjunction with a high speed fluorescence photometry system to capture videos of dynamically deforming droplets. Such videos clearly show that the droplets undergo oscillatory deformation patterns. Although many authors have previously investigated the air flow induced droplet detachment, none of them have studied these oscillatory modes. The novelty of this work is to process and analyze the recorded videos to gather information on the droplets induced oscillation. Plots are formulated to indicate the dominant horizontal and vertical deformation frequency components over the range of sizes of droplets from formation to detachment. The system is also used to characterize droplet detachment size at a variety of channel air velocities. A simplified model to explain the droplet oscillation mechanism is provided as well.     

Vaporization and collision modeling of liquid fuel sprays in a co-axial fuel and air pre-mixer

Droplet collision occurs frequently in regions where the droplet number density is high. Even for Lean Premixed and Pre-vaporized (LPP) liquid sprays, the collision effects can be very high on the droplet size distributions, which will in turn affect the droplet vaporization process. Hence, in conjunction with vaporization modeling, collision modeling for such spray systems is also essential. The standard O’Rourke’s collision model, usually implemented in CFD codes, tends to generate unphysical numerical artifact when simulations are performed on Cartesian grid and the results are not grid independent. Thus, a new collision modeling approach based on no-time-counter method (NTC) proposed by Schmidt and Rutland is implemented to replace O’Rourke’s collision algorithm to solve a spray injection problem in a cylindrical coflow premixer. The so called “four-leaf clover” numerical artifacts are eliminated by the new collision algorithm and results from a diesel spray show very good grid independence. Next, the dispersion and vaporization processes for liquid fuel sprays are simulated in a coflow premixer. Two liquid fuels under investigation are jet-A and Rapeseed Methyl Esters (RME). Results show very good grid independence in terms of SMD distribution, droplet number distribution and fuel vapor mass flow rate. A baseline test is first established with a spray cone angle of 90° and injection velocity of 3 m/s and jet-A achieves much better vaporization performance than RME due to its higher vapor pressure. To improve the vaporization performance for both fuels, a series of simulations have been done at several different combinations of spray cone angle and injection velocity. At relatively low spray cone angle and injection velocity, the collision effect on the average droplet size and the vaporization performance are very high due to relatively high coalescence rate induced by droplet collisions. Thus, at higher spray cone angle and injection velocity, the results expectedly show improvement in fuel vaporization performance since smaller droplet has a higher vaporization rate. The vaporization performance and the level of homogeneity of fuel–air mixture can be significantly improved when the dispersion level is high, which can be achieved by increasing the spray cone angle and injection velocity.     

A molecular dynamics simulation of droplet evaporation

A molecular dynamics (MD) simulation method is developed to study the evaporation of submicron droplets in a gaseous surrounding. A new methodology is proposed to specify initial conditions for the droplet and the ambient fluid, and to identify droplet shape during the vaporization process. The vaporization of xenon droplets in nitrogen ambient under subcritical and supercritical conditions is examined. Both spherical and non-spherical droplets are considered. The MD simulations are shown to be independent of the droplet and system sizes considered, although the observed vaporization behavior exhibits some scatter, as expected. The MD results are used to examine the effects of ambient and droplet properties on the vaporization characteristics of submicron droplets. For subcritical conditions, it is shown that a spherical droplet maintains its sphericity, while an initially non-spherical droplet attains the spherical shape very early in its lifetime, i.e., within 10% of the lifetime. For both spherical and non-spherical droplets, the subcritical vaporization, which is characterized by the migration of xenon particles that constitute the droplet to the ambient, exhibits characteristics that are analogous to those reported for “continuum-size” droplets. The vaporization process consists of an initial liquid-heating stage during which the vaporization rate is relatively low, followed by nearly constant liquid-temperature evaporation at a “pseudo wet-bulb temperature”. The rate of vaporization increases as the ambient temperature and/or the initial droplet temperature are increased. For the supercritical case, the droplet does not return to the spherical configuration, i.e., its sphericity deteriorates sharply, and its temperature increases continuously during the “vaporization” process.     

Multicomponent fuel droplet vaporization and combustion using spectral theory for a continuous mixture

The Quasi-Steady vaporization and combustion of a multicomponent, spherically symmetrical droplet composed of a thermodynamically ideal mixture of mutually soluble fuels is analyzed theoretically by approximating the discrete mixture by a Continuous Mixture (CM). The CM is described locally by a general Probability Density Function (PDF), which is approximated by a truncated spectral expansion with a number of ‘components’ much smaller than the number of chemical components in the original mixture. Two methods (Galerkin and Orthogonal Collocation OC) are proposed, discussed, and OC is used, to solve the evolution of the spectral governing equations. The present paper generalizes the methods employed in most earlier Continuous Mixture Theory (CMT) studies, in which the PDF describing the mixture is assumed to have a predetermined mathematical form. These methods are illustrated for the practical cases of vaporization and combustion of individual droplets of gasoline, diesel or aviation fuel JP4. The results show that in most cases our spectral OC provides useful results with as few as six spectral pseudocomponents.     

Finite-rate evaporation and droplet drag effects in spherical flame front propagation through a liquid fuel mist

An evolution equation for a laminar flame front propagating into an air and liquid fuel mist cloud is derived for the first time, accounting for both the finite-rate evaporation of the fuel droplets and the slip velocity between them and their host environment. The asymptotic analysis employed in developing the equation exploits the usual inverse large activation energy parameter associated with chemical reaction in the flame and a small drag parameter. It is demonstrated that, in the no-slip velocity case, increasing the vaporization Damköhler number can produce flame extinction, presumably due to the more intense heat loss incurred due to droplet heat absorption necessary for vaporization. Droplet drag can also induce extinction due to the longer residence time of the droplets in any locale (than if there was no slip), leading to more vaporization with greater attendant heat loss. The predicted results for droplet velocity are compared to independent experimental data from the literature with good qualitative agreement.     

Flame propagation in metal slurry sprays

An analytical and computational study of vaporizing and burning liquid hydrocarbon-metal slurry droplet streams injected into a hot gas is presented. The objective is to investigate the mass and energy interactions between the slurry droplet streams and the gas flow. An idealized configuration consisting of parallel droplet streams is used. The governing gas-phase equations are analytically integrated by using the Green's function approach and a resulting set of first order nonlinear ordinary differential equations is numerically solved. The slurry droplet model includes transient heating and particle drag, a shell-bubble formulation, heating and ignition of the metal agglomerate subsequent to the vaporization of the liquid fuel, and vapor-phase burning of the metal. Results show that, at different combustor locations, interacting and distinct premixed and diffusion type reaction zones are present. For the metal particle to be ignited, at a given metal loading, there exists a minimum inlet gas temperature requirement which depends upon the equivalence ratio. The heating and burning times of the metal agglomerate are found to be much larger in comparison to the liquid fuel vaporization times, and they increase with increasing metal particle size and metal loading of the slurry droplets.     

Interaction of transfer processes during unsteady evaporation of water droplets

The change of water droplets state is modelled numerically under various heat and mass transfer conditions during their unsteady evaporation. The modelling is performed using the method of combined analytic–numeric research of heat and mass transfer in a two-phase “droplets–gas” flow. The algorithm of an iterative research is constructed for the analytically obtained system of integral equations. Regularities of heat transfer process interaction are examined. The dependence of the droplet state change on its heating manner is determined. Unsteadiness and interaction of transfer processes, as well as selectivity of radiant absorption in water droplets are evaluated. It is indicated that cognition of the droplet state change regularities in the case of conductive heating is very important in determination of two-phase flow and in construction of an engineering research method.     

A Burke-Schumann analysis of dual-flame structure supported by a burning droplet

Droplet combustion experiments carried out onboard the International Space Station, using pure fuels and fuel mixtures, have shown that quasi-steady burning can be sustained by a non-traditional flame configuration, namely a “cool flame” burning in the “partial-burning” regime where both fuel and oxygen leak through the low-temperature-controlled flame-sheet. Recent experiments involving large, bi-component fuel (n-decane and hexanol, 50/50 by volume) droplets at elevated pressures show that the visible, hot flame becomes extremely weak while the burning rate remains relatively high, suggesting the possible simultaneous presence of “cool” and “hot” flames of roughly equal importance. The radiant output from these bi-component droplets is relatively high and cannot be accounted for only by the presence of a visible hot flame. In this analysis we explore the theoretical possibility of a dual-flame structure, where one flame lies close to the droplet surface, called the “cool flame”, and the other farther away from the droplet surface, termed the “hot flame”. A Burke-Schumann analysis of this dual structure seems to indicate that such flame structures are possible over a limited range of initial conditions. These theoretical results can be compared against available experimental data for pure and bi-component fuel droplet combustion to test how realistic the model may be.     

Mass exchange between droplets during head-on collisions of multisize sprays

A derivation of sectional equations for mass exchange between colliding droplets during head-on collisions of multisize (polydisperse) sprays is presented. The collision terms of these equations account for binary collisions which lead to coalescence and immediate break-up into two new droplets which differ in mass from the original droplets. That is, mass is exchanged between the original droplets. The amount of exchanged mass is allowed to vary between 0 and 100% of the mass of the donor droplet. The new equations are employed here to analyze the time evolution in droplet size distributions of two head-on colliding polydisperse sprays.     

Advances in droplet array combustion theory and modeling

A review of research on the subject of the vaporization and burning of fuel droplets configured in a prescribed array is presented, including both classical works and research over the past decade or two. Droplet arrays and groups and the relation to sprays are discussed. The classical works are reviewed. Recent research on transient burning and vaporization of finite arrays with Stefan convection but without forced convection is presented, including extensions to non-unitary Lewis number and multi-component, liquid fuels. Recent results on transient, convective burning of droplets in arrays are also examined. In particular, transient convective burning of infinite (single-layer periodic and double-layer periodic) and finite droplet arrays are discussed; attention is given to the effects of droplet deceleration due to aerodynamic drag, diameter decrease due to vaporization, internal liquid circulation, and arrays with moving droplets in tandem and staggered configurations. Flame structure is examined as a function of spacing between neighboring droplets and Damköhler number: individual droplet flames versus group flames and wake flames versus envelope flames. Based on existing knowledge of laminar droplet array and spray combustion theory, experimental evidence, and turbulent studies for non-vaporizing and non-reacting two-phase flows, comments are made on the needs and implications for the study of turbulent spray and array combustion.     

Numerical simulation of fuel sprays at high ambient pressure: the influence of real gas effects and gas solubility on droplet vaporisation

This paper deals with the numerical simulation of the vaporisation of an unsteady fuel spray at high ambient temperature and pressure solving the appropriate conservation equations. The extended droplet vaporisation model accounts for the effects of non-ideal droplet evaporation and gas solubility including the diffusion of heat and species within fuel droplets. To account for high-temperature and high-pressure conditions, the fuel properties and the phase boundary conditions are calculated by an equation of state and the liquid/vapour equilibrium is estimated from fugacities. Calculations for an unsteady diesel-like spray were performed for a gas temperature of 800 K and a pressure of 5 MPa and compared to experimental results for droplet velocities and diameter distribution. The spray model is based on an Eulerian/Lagrangian approach. The comparison shows that the differences between the various spray models are pronounced for single droplets. For droplet sprays the droplet diameter distribution is more influenced by secondary break-up and droplet coagulation.     

Dispersion and vaporization of biofuels and conventional fuels in a crossflow pre-mixer

In lean premixed pre-vaporized (LPP) combustion, controlled atomization, dispersion and vaporization of different types of liquid fuel in the premixer are the key factors required to stabilize the combustion process and improve the efficiency. The dispersion and vaporization process for biofuels and conventional fuels sprayed into a crossflow pre-mixer have been simulated and analyzed with respect to vaporization rate, degree of mixedness and homogeneity. Two major biofuels under investigation are Ethanol and Rapeseed Methyl Esters (RME), while conventional fuels are gasoline and jet-A. First, the numerical code is validated by comparing with the experimental data of single n-heptane and decane droplet evaporating under both moderate and high temperature convective air flow. Next, the spray simulations were conducted with monodispersed droplets with an initial diameter of 80 μm injected into a turbulent crossflow of air with a typical velocity of 10 m/s and temperature of around 800 K. Vaporization time scales of different fuels are found to be very different. The droplet diameter reduction and surface temperature rise were found to be strongly dependent on the fuel properties. Gasoline droplet exhibited a much faster vaporization due a combination of higher vapor pressure and smaller latent heat of vaporization compared to other fuels. Mono-dispersed spray was adopted with the expectation of achieving more homogeneous fuel droplet size than poly-dispersed spray. However, the diameter histogram in the zone near the pre-mixer exit shows a large range of droplet diameter distributions for all the fuels. In order to improve the vaporization performance, fuels were pre-heated before injection. Results show that the Sauter mean diameter of ethanol improved from 52.8% of the initial injection size to 48.2%, while jet-A improved from 48.4% to 18.6% and RME improved from 63.5% to 31.3%. The diameter histogram showed improved vaporization performance of jet-A.     

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

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.     

Current status of droplet evaporation in turbulent flows

This article reviews the available literature results concerning the effects of turbulence on the transport (heat and mass transfer) rates from a droplet. The survey emphasizes recent findings related specifically to physical models and correlations for predicting turbulence effects on the vaporization rate of a droplet. In addition, several research challenges on the vaporization of fuel droplets in turbulent flow environments are outlined.     

Effects of ambient turbulence and fuel properties on the evaporation rate of single droplets

Results of the evaporation of a single liquid fuel droplet in various free-stream turbulence intensities and scales are reported. Experiments are carried out at room temperature by using n-heptane and n-decane fuels at Re_d=100. A low-speed vertical wind tunnel with different turbulence intensities and scales, controlled by using different sizes of disk, is constructed. The free-stream turbulence intensities are varied in the range from 1% to 60% and the integral length scales are from 2.5 to 20 times of the initial droplet diameter. Results show that the time history of droplet diameter follows the d²-law in turbulent environments with generally higher evaporation rates as compared with those in quasi-laminar cases. Combined effects of liquid fuel properties and ambient turbulence properties on the evaporation rate can be reasonably well explained by the correlation of normalized evaporation rate with the effective vaporization Damköhler number, Da_v.