Evaporation and burning of a spherical fuel droplet in a uniform convective flowfield

An analytical/numerical model is developed for the evaporation and burning of a spherical fuel droplet in a subsonic crossflow. The external gaseous flowfield is represented using an approximate compressible potential-flow solution, while the internal flowfield of the droplet is represented by the classical Hill's spherical vortex. This allows a numerical solution for the external boundary layer, from which the droplet's effective drag coefficent, rate of mass loss, size, and the shape of the diffusion flame with infinitely fast chemical reaction kinetics are determined. Subsequently, the quasi-steady model with uniform liquid temperature is extended to examine the effects of the transient heating of the droplet interior. Time-dependent calculations are performed with updated droplet Reynolds numbers and updated surface temperatures. Comparisons of model predictions with experimental data are made. To examine the effects of finite-rate chemical reaction kinetics, a one-step formulation of the combustion mechanism is integrated into the gaseous boundary layer equations. Simplifying assumptions for the variation of gas properties commonly used in combustion calculations, are subjected to an examination as to their degree of accuracy. For this purpose, the droplet model is extended to account for the variation of gas properties with temperature and gas composition within the boundary layer. Comparisons are made between the predictions obtained from the different models developed in this study, as well as with existing experimental data

Burning of a spherical fuel droplet in a uniform subsonic flowfield

An analytical/numerical model is described for the evaporation and burning of a spherical fuel droplet in a subsonic crossflow. The external gaseous flowfield is represented using an approximate compressible potential solution, while the internal flowfield of the droplet is represented by the classical Hill's spherical vortex. This allows numerical solution for the external boundary layer and diffusion flame characteristics to be made, from which the droplet's effective drag coefficient, rate of mass loss, size, and flame shape are determined. Comparison with experimental data indicate good agreement, and thus the potential for such simplified models in performing parametric studies