A study on the characteristics of soot formation and oxidation in free fuel droplet array

In this study, it was attempted to obtain the fundamental data for the formation and oxidation of soot from a diesel engine. Combustion of spray injected into a cylinder is complex phenomenon having physical and chemical processes, and these processes affect each other. There are many factors in the mechanism of the formation and oxidization of soot and it is necessary to observe spray combustion microscopically. In order to observe with that view, free fuel droplet array was used as an experimental object and the droplet array was injected into an atmospheric combustion chamber with high temperature. Ambient temperature of the combustion chamber, interdroplet spacing, and droplet diameter were selected as parameters, which affect the formation and oxidation of soot. In this study, it was found that the parameters also affect ignition delay of droplet. The ambient temperature especially affected the ignition delay of droplet as well as the flame temperature after self-ignition. As the interdroplet spacing that means the local equivalence ratio in a combustion chamber was narrow, formation of soot was increased. As diameter of droplet was large, surface area of the droplet was also broad, and hence evaporation of the droplet was more active than that of a droplet with relative small diameter.