Burning of Distillate Fuel Droplets Containing Alcohol or Water: Effect of Additive Concentration

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Previous work on the addition of methanol, ethanol and water to pure n-paraffins is extended to a conventional No. 2 distillate fuel oil. Both the effect of additive content in the fuel oil and oxidizer concentration in the environmental flow on the existence and character of the disruptive behavior of these solutions and emulsions are investigated. For the ethanol in No. 2 oil solution cases it is shown that there is a maximum and a minimum ethanol con-centiation for which disruptive burning occurs, viz. 5% and 90% by volume. The results show an optimal ethanol concentration range within 15% and 55% by volume for which the disruption occurs prior to the consumption of 40% of the initial volume of the solution droplet. It is also shown that emulsions of water-in-No. 2 oil undergo micro-explosive vaporization and combustion and that the role of emulsion water content in promoting the dispersion of mass through micro-explosive phenomena is not highly significant.