Sooting characteristics of isolated droplet burning in heated ambients under microgravity

This paper presents an investigation into the sooting characteristics of isolated droplets (for fuel n-decane) burning in heated ambients in microgravity. A backlit video view of the droplet was taken to determine the soot shell size and to judge the transient soot generation according to qualitative amount of soot. The independent experiment variables were the ambient temperature and initial droplet diameter. Soot generation was higher for initially larger droplets when compared at the same burning time normalized with the initial droplet diameter squared (called normalized burning time). At the same absolute burning time there existed an obvious initial transient period after ignition in which the stated relationship was not satisfied. This transient time increased with increasing the ambient temperature. There was a peak in the soot generation at about 1000 K throughout the lifetime of the droplet. The soot shell size was generally larger for an initially bigger droplet at the same instantaneous droplet diameter or normalized burning time. At the same absolute burning time, however, an initially smaller droplet exhibited larger relative soot shell sizes (the soot shell size normalized with the initial droplet diameter). The soot shell size increased monotonically with increasing ambient temperature. This is due to the increase in the Stefan flow drag with the larger burning rate at the higher temperature. The consequent result is that the soot shell sizes are much larger for droplets burning in heated ambients than for droplets burning in room-temperature ambients.