Experimental and numerical analysis of spray-atomization characteristics of biodiesel fuel in various fuel and ambient temperatures conditions

The purpose of this work is to reveal the effects of fuel temperatures and ambient gas conditions on the spray-atomization behavior of soybean oil methyl ester (SME) fuel. The spray-atomization behavior was analyzed through spray parameters such as the axial distance from the nozzle tip, local and overall Sauter mean diameter (SMD). These parameters were obtained from a spray visualization system and a droplet measuring system. In addition, the experimental results were compared with the numerical results calculated by the KIVA-3V code. It was revealed that the increase of the fuel temperature (from 300 K to 360 K) little affects the spray liquid tip penetration. The increase of the ambient gas temperature (from 300 K to 450 K) caused a increase in the spray liquid tip penetration. Also, biodiesel fuel evaporation actively occurred due to the increase in the fuel temperature and the ambient gas temperature. Of special significance was that the highest vapor fuel mass concentration was observed at the center region of the spray axis. In the results of the microscopic characteristics, the detected local droplet size at the axial direction and overall droplet size at the axial and radial direction in a control volume increased when the fuel temperature increased. This is believed to be due to an increase in the number of small droplets that quickly evaporated. In addition, the increased fuel temperature caused the decrease of the number of droplets and the increase of the vapor fuel mass. The mean axial velocity of droplets decreased with increasing fuel temperature.