Aerodynamic breakup of an n-decane droplet in a high temperature gas environment. (1st December 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Strotos, George; Malgarinos, Ilias; Nikolopoulos, Nikos; Gavaises, Manolis
• Is Part Of: Fuel. Volume 185(2016)
• Page Start: 370
• Page End: 380
• Publication Date: 2016-12-01
• Subjects: Droplet breakup -- VOF -- Heating -- Evaporation; Fuel -- Periodicals; Coal -- Periodicals; Coal; Fuel; Periodicals; 662.6
• DOI: 10.1016/j.fuel.2016.08.014
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0016-2361

Abstract

Abstract: The aerodynamic droplet breakup under the influence of heating and evaporation is studied numerically by solving the Navier-Stokes, energy and transport of species conservation equations; the VOF methodology is utilized in order to capture the liquid-air interphase. The conditions examined refer to an n -decane droplet with Weber numbers in the range 15–90 and gas phase temperatures in the range 600–1000 K at atmospheric pressure. To assess the effect of heating, the same cases are also examined under isothermal conditions and assuming constant physical properties of the liquid and surrounding air. Under non-isothermal conditions, the surface tension coefficient decreases due to the droplet heat-up and promotes breakup. This is more evident for the cases of lower Weber number and higher gas phase temperature. The present results are also compared against previously published ones for a more volatile n -heptane droplet and reveal that fuels with a lower volatility are more prone to breakup. A 0-D model accounting for the temporal variation of the heat/mass transfer numbers is proposed, able to predict with sufficient accuracy the thermal behavior of the deformed droplet.