Droplet burning of n-butyl acetate/n-heptane mixtures in the standard atmosphere: experiments and numerical modeling
- Cornell University
Blending petroleum fuels with oxygenates is a common approach to stem the depletion of crude oil while also mitigating the impact of their combustion on the environment. It has recently been considered that n-butyl acetate (BA, C6H12O2 , boiling point of 399K) could be a viable oxygenate additive to diesel fuel. In this application it is important to determine the influence of the fractional amount of BA on burning of the mixture. This presentation considers this problem from an experimental and computational approach using n-heptane (C7H14 , boiling point of 372K) as an essentially single component surrogate for diesel fuel. The burning configuration considered was ostensibly spherical symmetry as promoted by burning droplets under conditions where forced and natural convection effects were minimized. In this configuration the droplet and flame are concentric spheres and soot aggregates are trapped in a shell structure between the droplet and flame. Measurements were made of the droplet, flame and soot shell diameters through video imaging of the burning process. The experimental results were used to validate a detailed numerical model of the spherically symmetric droplet burning process that incorporated a consistent combustion kinetic mechanism for BA/heptane mixtures, comprised of 402 species and 16,872 reactions inclusive of soot chemistry. A model for soot formation was also included in the simulation to predict formation of the soot shell. The simulations agreed well with measured droplet and flame diameters. It was found both experimentally and computationally that adding BA to heptane had a minimal effect on the mixture burning rate, while the flame was positioned closer to the droplet surface and the simulated soot volume fraction decreased. The implications of these results are discussed for using BA as a potential additive to diesel fuel.
- Research Organization:
- American Society for Gravitational and Space Research
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
- DOE Contract Number:
- EE0008483
- OSTI ID:
- 1998225
- Report Number(s):
- DOE-CORNELL-0008483-3
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Combustion of Butyl acetate as an alternative additive to petroleum fuels
Combustion studies of n-butyl acetate synthesized by a new biological process and comparisons with neat n-butyl acetate
A simple biofuel surrogate blend for diesel fuel: heptane/iso-butanol mixtures and their droplet burning characteristics
Conference
·
Wed Nov 04 23:00:00 EST 2020
·
OSTI ID:1998248
Combustion studies of n-butyl acetate synthesized by a new biological process and comparisons with neat n-butyl acetate
Conference
·
Mon May 24 00:00:00 EDT 2021
·
OSTI ID:1998247
A simple biofuel surrogate blend for diesel fuel: heptane/iso-butanol mixtures and their droplet burning characteristics
Conference
·
Mon May 14 00:00:00 EDT 2018
·
OSTI ID:1998548