Numerical investigation of bi-component droplets vaporization in a turbulent flow

Abstract

Paper presented at the 9th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Malta, 16-18 July, 2012.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a three-dimensional (3D) numerical model capable of investigating the vaporization rate of bi-component liquid fuel droplets exposed to a convective turbulent gaseous air freestream at ambient room temperature and atmospheric pressure conditions. Droplets of n-heptane and n-decane mixtures with different compositions are used. The mathematical model is based on 3D Reynolds- Averaged Navier-Stokes equations, together with the mass, species, and energy conservation equations in gas phase whileas Navier-Stokes equations, mass, species, and energy conservation in the liquid phase. The turbulence terms in the conservation equations of the gas-phase are modelled by using the shear-stress transport (SST) model. A Cartesian grid based blocked-off technique is used in conjunction with the finite- volume method to solve numerically the governing equations of the gas and liquid-phases. The present predictions showed good agreement with turbulent experimental data available in the literature. The present study is limited to ambient room temperature and atmospheric pressure conditions.