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.     

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.     

Percolation theory for flame propagation in non- or less-volatile fuel spray: A conceptual analysis to group combustion excitation mechanism

A percolation theory for flame propagation in non- or less-volatile fuel spray is developed based on a cubic lattice model representing a local spray state. The interdroplet flame propagation characteristics found from microgravity experiments on flame spread along a linear droplet array are applicable to describing interdroplet flame propagation between neighboring droplets in any distribution of droplets because the effect of heat conduction from the flame front is shielded by the nearest unburned droplet, which acts as a heat sink. Thus, once the method by which the unburned droplet nearest to the flame front is ignited is identified and formulated into a simple algorithm rule, we can examine by computer simulation the statistical flame propagation behavior in a non- or less-volatile fuel spray in the framework of the percolation theory. In non- or less-volatile fuel, an unburned droplet swallowed by an envelope diffusion flame of other droplets is heated and becomes a new supplier of fuel vapor to the flame front, allowing the flame front to advance. For randomly distributed droplets, the flame front selects the path that minimizes its propagation time. These two phenomena occur when the grid spacing of the cubic lattice model is equal to the maximum flame radius of an isolated droplet immersed in the same air conditions as the local spray state. Furthermore, physical considerations reveal that the lattice size that leads to statistically meaningful information can be rather small, i.e., 20×20×20 vertices. Therefore, the proposed percolation theory is tractable and useful in finding the probability that a flame front propagates across a spray element and for exploring the mechanism of the excitation of group combustion for non- or less-volatile fuel sprays.     

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.     

Alcohol droplet vaporization in humid air

Experimental and theoretical investigations were conducted for the vaporization of a single alcohol droplet in air with various degrees of humidity. Experimental results show that the vaporization of a volatile alcohol, such as methanol and ethanol, is accompanied by the simultaneous condensation of water vapor on the droplet surface and its subsequent diffusion into the droplet interior such that the associated condensation heat release greatly facilitates the initial gasification rate of alcohol. However, for alcohols which are less volatile, or for liquids which are not miscible with water, atmospheric moisture has practically no effect on the droplet gasification rate. Theoretical results substantiate the above observation.     

Recent advances in droplet vaporization and combustion

Recent progress on understanding the fundamental mechanisms governing droplet vaporization and combustion are reviewed. Topics include the classical d²-Law and its limitations; the major transient processes of droplet heating and fuel vapor accumulation; effects due to variable transport property assumptions; combustion of multicomponent fuels including the miscible fuel blends, immiscible emulsions, and coal-oil mixtures, finite-rate kinetics leading to ignition and extinction; and droplet interaction. Potentially promising research topics are also suggested.     

Flame structure in fuel rich mono-dispersed sprays

The flame structure and the mechanism of the flame propagation in fuel sprays is studied through a one-dimensional, laminar, monodispersed spray of n-octane fuel. A hybrid Eulerian-Lagrangian method is used in this analyses. The results show that for sprays with small initial droplet radii (e.g., γ_κ = 29.6 μm), the flame structure resembles that of a premixed gaseous combustion. However, as the droplet size is increased, the flame becomes more heterogeneous. When droplet interaction is added to the model the heterogeneity of the flame is enhanced and large fluctuations both in the flame temperature and fuel vapor concentrations are observed.     

Flame propagation through an air-fuel spray mixture with transient droplet vaporization

Flame initiation and propagation through an air/fuel vapor/fuel drop system is numerically modeled in a cylindrical one-dimensional closed combustor. An unsteady formulation of the flow problem eliminates the cold-boundary difficulty and gas-phase ignition problem. A velocity lag between the gas and the liquid phase is allowed and unsteady heat transfer to the droplets is taken into account. The surface temperature of the droplet is evaluated by using an unsteady spherically symmetric formulation of the droplet heat conduction problem with no internal motion and with a time-varying heat flux specified at the surface as a boundary condition. Results have been obtained for two commercially important fuels, namely, n-octane and n-decane. The activation energy and the preexponential factor in the Arrhenius-type expression for chemical rate, along with initial temperature, initial droplet size, stoichiometric ratio, and diffusivity are parametrically varied and flame speed and flame temperatures are observed. Flame speed is seen to increase with increasing preexponential factor, decreasing activation energy, increasing ambient temperature, decreasing initial droplet radii, and increasing diffusivities. It is also observed that unlike premixed combustion, heterogeneous combustion gives rise to local variations of equivalence in the axial direction. This phenomenon could give rise to a secondary diffusion flame in the wake of a propagating flame and produce local variations in the flame temperature.     

Droplet combustion in the presence of acoustic excitation

This experimental study focused on droplet combustion characteristics for various liquid fuels during exposure to external acoustical perturbations generated within an acoustic waveguide. The alternative liquid fuels include alcohols, aviation fuel (JP-8), and liquid synthetic fuel derived via the Fischer–Tropsch process. The study examined combustion during excitation conditions in which the droplet was situated in the vicinity of a pressure node (PN). In response to such acoustic excitation, the flame surrounding the droplet was observed to be deflected, on average, with an orientation depending on the droplet’s relative position with respect to the PN. Flame orientation was always found to be consistent with the sign of a theoretical bulk acoustic acceleration, analogous to a gravitational acceleration, acting on the burning system. Yet experimentally measured acoustic accelerations based on mean flame deflection differed quantitatively from that predicted by the theory. Phase-locked OH^∗ chemiluminescence imaging revealed temporal oscillations in flame standoff distance from the droplet as well as chemiluminescent intensity; these oscillations were especially pronounced when the droplets were situated close to the PN. Simultaneous imaging and pressure measurements enabled quantification of combustion-acoustic coupling via the Rayleigh index, and hence a more detailed understanding of dynamical phenomena associated with acoustically coupled condensed phase combustion processes.     

柴油含水乙醇乳化燃料物性及喷雾燃烧特性研究

试验使用不同配比的柴油含水乙醇乳化燃料,对其理化、喷雾和燃烧特性进行了研究。随着柴油含水乙醇乳化燃料中含水乙醇含量的增加,乳化燃料的密度和运动黏度上升,表面张力略微下降,初始蒸馏温度下降,含氧量升高,十六烷值和低热值降低。试验使用定容燃烧弹,在常温高压和高温高压环境下,对乳化燃料非蒸发喷雾、蒸发喷雾及喷雾燃烧的特性进行了测试。研究结果表明:随着乳化燃料中含水乙醇比例升高,非蒸发喷雾贯穿距和喷雾锥角变化不大;蒸发喷雾贯穿距和喷雾锥角略微减小,但无明显规律,而蒸发喷雾中液相贯穿距离明显增加;燃烧火焰自发光亮度逐渐降低,表征碳烟生成量逐渐减少;在900K环境温度、21%氧体积分数条件下着火滞燃期变化不大。     

Studies of the Effect of Spray Inlet Conditions on the Flow and Flame Structures of Ethanol-Spray Combustion by Large-Eddy Simulation

Large-eddy simulation (LES) of ethanol spray-air combustion with a poly-dispersed initial droplet size distribution is presented here by using an Eulerian-Lagrangian approach, a sub-grid-scale kinetic energy stress model, and a filtered finite-rate combustion model with a sub-grid scale reaction rate called the second-order moment (SOM) combustion model, proposed by our research group. The simulation results are validated in detail by experiments. Furthermore, the flow and flame structures of spray combustion with different spray cone angles and cone angle thickness are studied. The results show that for the case of smaller spray cone angle thickness, the coherent structures in the high temperature zone tend to shed more clearly. High temperature develops around the coherent structures in the region of high vapor concentration, but not inside the large vortices. For the spray combustion with larger spray cone angle thickness, the vortex shedding at the outside of the flame zone is faster than that with smaller spray cone angle thickness. The instantaneous temperature maps of different spray flame structures with smaller cone angle thickness indicate the existence of small flame islands, expressing the droplet-group combustion, which is not observed in single-phase jet combustion and not obvious in the case of larger cone angle thickness.     

Combustion of nanofluid fuels with the addition of boron and iron particles at dilute and dense concentrations

The combustion characteristics of nanofluid fuels containing additions of boron and iron particles were investigated. The effects of particle materials, loading rate, and type of base fuel on suspension quality and combustion behavior were determined. The burning behaviors of dilute and dense suspensions were compared, and the results for dense nanosuspensions showed that most particles were burned as a large agglomerate at a later stage when all the liquid fuel had been consumed. Sometimes this agglomerate may not burn if the energy provided by the droplet flame is insufficient. For dilute suspensions, the burning characteristics were characterized by a simultaneous burning of both the droplet and the particles, which integrated into one stage. The fundamental mechanism responsible for bringing the particles out of the droplet, which is a prerequisite condition for them to burn, is different for n-decane- and ethanol-based fuels. For the former, the particles are brought out of the droplet by a disruptive behavior of the primary droplet, which was characterized by multiple-time disruptions and with strong intensity. This was caused by the different boiling points between n-decane and the surfactant. For ethanol-based fuels having no added surfactant, the particles are also brought out of the droplet by disruptive behavior, but characterized by continuous disruptions of mild intensity. This was very likely caused by a continuous water absorption by the ethanol droplet during its burning process.     

AN ADVANCED SPRAY MODEL FOR APPLICATION TO THE PREDICTION OF GAS TURBINE COMBUSTOR FLOW FIELDS

It is well known that fuel preparation, its method of injection into a combustor, and its atomization characteristics have a significant impact on emissions. A simple dilute spray model, which assumes that droplet heating and vaporization occur in sequence, has been implemented in the past within computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes at General Electric (GE) and has been used extensively for combustion applications. This spray model coupled with an appropriate combustion model makes reasonable predictions of the combustor pattern factor and emissions. To improve upon this predictive ability, a more advanced quasi-steady droplet vaporization model has been considered. This article describes the evaluation of this advanced model. In this new approach, droplet heating and vaporization take place simultaneously (which is more realistic). In addition, the transport properties of both the liquid and vapor phases are allowed to vary as a function of pressure, gas phase temperature, and droplet temperature. These transport properties, which are most up to date, have been compiled from various sources and appropriately curve-fit in the form of polynomials. Validation of this new approach for a single droplet was initially performed. Subsequently calculations of the flow and temperature field were conducted and emissions (NOx, CO, and UHC) were predicted for a modern single annular turbofan engine combustor using both the standard spray model and the advanced spray model. The effect of the number of droplet size ranges as well as the effect of stochastic treatment of the droplets were both investigated.     

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.     

Numerical study on flash‐boiling spray of multicomponent fuel

Flash‐boiling occurs when a fuel is injected into a combustion chamber where the ambient pressure is lower than the saturation pressure of the fuel. It has been known that flashing is a favorable mechanism for atomizing liquid fuels. On the other hand, alternative fuels, such as gaseous fuels and oxygenated fuels, are used to achieve low exhaust emissions in recent years. In general, most of these alternative fuels have high volatility and flash‐boiling takes place easily in the fuel spray when injected into the combustion chamber of an internal combustion engine under high pressure. In addition the multicomponent mixture of high‐ and low‐volatility fuels has been proposed in the previous study in order to control the spray and combustion processes in an internal combustion engine. It was found that the multicomponent fuel produces flash‐boiling with an increase in the initial fuel temperature. Therefore, it is important to investigate these flash‐boiling processes in fuel spray. In the present study, the submodels of a flash‐boiling spray are constructed. These submodels consider the bubble nucleation, growth, and disruption in the nozzle orifice and injected fuel droplets. The model is implemented in KIVA3V and the spray characteristics of multicomponent fuel with and without flashing are numerically investigated. In addition, these numerical results are compared with experimental data obtained in the previous study using a constant volume vessel. The flashing spray characteristics from numerical simulation qualitatively show good agreement with the experimental results. In particular, it is confirmed from both the numerical and experimental data that flash‐boiling effectively accelerates the atomization and vaporization of fuel droplets. This means that a lean homogeneous mixture can be quickly formed using flash‐boiling in the combustion chamber. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res, 35(5): 369–385, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/htj.20117     

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.     

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 emulsified fuel spray combustion with puffing and micro-explosion

The purpose of this study was to develop numerical simulation of spray combustion of emulsified fuel with considering puffing and micro-explosion. First, a mathematical model for puffing was proposed. In the proposed puffing model, the rate of mass change of a droplet during puffing was expressed by the evaporation rate of dispersed water and the mass change rate due to fine droplets spouted from the droplet surface. The mass change rate due to fine droplets was related to the evaporation rate of the dispersed water and each liquid content. This model had only one experimental parameter. The essential feature of this model was that it was simple to apply to numerical simulation of spray combustion. First, the validity of the proposed puffing model was investigated with the experimental results for a single droplet. The calculated results for a single droplet with the experimental parameter varying from 5.0 to 10 were in good agreement with the experimental results. Moreover, numerical simulation of spray combustion of emulsified fuel was carried out. The occurrence of puffing and micro-explosion was determined by the inner droplet temperature. When micro-explosion occurred, a droplet changed to vapor rapidly. When the proposed puffing model was used in numerical simulation of spray combustion, the experimental parameter in the puffing model was determined for each droplet by random numbers within the range 5.0-10. The calculated results of spray combustion of emulsified fuel without considering puffing or micro-explosions were different from the experimental results even where combustion reactions were almost terminated. Meanwhile, the calculated results when considering puffing and micro-explosions were in good agreement with experimental results at the same location.     

Theoretical modeling of a compound-drop spray in premixed flames

The influence of internal heat transfer induced by dilute compound-drop sprays on one-dimensional premixed flames is investigated using large activation energy asymptotic analysis. In this study, the compound drop is composed of a single water core encased by a shell of fuel. The gasification zones of the shell fuel and the core water affect the flow and flame characteristics. A critical completely pre-vaporized burning condition, (CPB)_c, is defined as the whole compound drops finishing vaporization right at the flame and a critical shell pre-vaporized burning condition, (SPB)_c, is defined as the shell fuel of compound drops finishing vaporization right at the flame. Under the (CPB)_c and (SPB)_c conditions of lean and rich flames, the flame propagation flux, the critical values of the shell-fuel mass fraction and the initial radius vary with the water-core radius and the liquid loading. For a lean spray flame, compound drops can provide internal heat transfer in the form of heat gain from the shell fuel and heat loss from the core water. The lean spray flame may be strengthened or weakened depending on the net heat transfer. For a rich spray flame, the compound-drop spray always weakens flame propagation. An S-shaped extinction curve occurs for a rich spray flame under the (SPB)_c condition, with a sufficiently heavy liquid loading and a sufficiently large water-core size.     

Investigation of heat and mass transfer between the two phases of an evaporating droplet stream using laser-induced fluorescence techniques: Comparison with modeling

Heat and mass exchanges between the two phases of a spray is a key point for the understanding of physical phenomena occurring during spray evaporation in a combustion chamber. Development and validation of physical models and computational tools dealing with spray evaporation requires experimental databases on both liquid and gas phases. This paper reports an experimental study of evaporating acetone droplets streaming linearly at moderate ambient temperatures up to 75 °C. Two-color laser-induced fluorescence is used to characterize the temporal evolution of droplet mean temperature. Simultaneously, fuel vapor distribution in the gas phase surrounding the droplet stream is investigated using acetone planar laser-induced fluorescence.Temperature measurements are compared to simplified heat and mass transfer model taking into account variable physical properties, droplet-to-droplet interactions and internal fluid circulation within the droplets. The droplet surface temperature, calculated with the model, is used to initiate the numerical simulation of fuel vapor diffusion and transport in the gas phase, assuming thermodynamic equilibrium at the droplet surface. Influence of droplet diameter and droplet spacing on the fuel vapor concentration field is investigated and numerical results are compared with experiments.