Date Approved

8-3-2021

Embargo Period

8-4-2021

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.S. Mechanical Engineering

Department

Mechanical Engineering

College

Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering

Advisor

Francis M. Haas, Ph.D.

Committee Member 1

Krishan Bhatia, Ph.D.

Committee Member 2

Thomas Merrill, Ph.D.

Keywords

prevaporized fuels, distillation, combustion behavior

Subject(s)

Fuel--Combustion

Disciplines

Mechanical Engineering

Abstract

Use of surrogates to emulate the combustion behaviors of prevaporized real fuels has been widely demonstrated in the literature. However, many combustion applications utilize atomized fuel sprays, and for these configurations, the assumption of fuel property homogeneity in prevaporized fuel combustion is tenuous. This work uses a simplified distilling droplet model to demonstrate a real potential for vaporization-coupled deviations from the single-valued combustion property targets used to characterize prevaporized combustion behaviors. To verify the model-based observations, flame blowout measurements from a custom-built annular spray burner rig are measured. Sets of essentially equivalent prevaporized jet fuel and gasoline surrogates suggested in the literature, and four nC9 surrogates composed of varying proportions of chemically similar n-alkanes are tested to examine blowout threshold variations driven by distillation behavior. The differing volatility characteristics of these surrogates emphasizes the influence of volatility on certain combustion behaviors (e.g., blowout) in a spray combustion environment. Noted variations in blowout limits (and also allowing for other limiting combustion behaviors not studied here) highlights the need to consider the coupling between distillation and combustion behavior.

Download

Share

COinS