Experimental and numerical investigation of droplet evaporation under diesel engine conditions

Evaporation of mono-disperse fuel droplets under high temperature and high pressure conditions is investigated. The time-dependent growth of the boundary layer of the droplets and the influence of neighboring droplets are examined analytically. A transient Nusselt number is calculated from numerical data and compared to the quasi-steady correlations available in literature. The analogy between heat and mass transfer is tested considering transient and quasi-steady calculations for the gas phase up to the critical point for a single droplet. The droplet evaporation in a droplet chain is examined numerically. Experimental investigations are performed to examine the influence of neighboring droplets on the drag coefficients. The results are compared with drag coefficient models for single droplets in a temperature range from T = 293-550 K and gas pressure p = 0.1-2 MPa. The experimental data provide basis for model validation in computational fluid dynamics. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.