Combustion of a Methanol Droplet under High Pressure Conditions

Daisuke Segawa (1) , Toshikazu Kadota (1) , Akira Nakainkyo (1) , Christian Chauveau (2) , Iskender Gokalp (2) , Bruno Vieille (2)

1 Osaka Prefecture University
2 LCSR - Laboratoire de combustion et systèmes reactifs

An experimental study was carried out on the combustion process of a methanol droplet in high pressure air under the normal gravity condition and reduced gravity conditions which are available in a drop shaft and during the parabolic flight of an airplane. Methanol was chosen as the test fuel both for its lower sooting tendency and also because it is considered to be one of the most promising candidates as alternative fuel for several applications. A methanol droplet was suspended at the tip of a fine quartz fiber in a high-pressure combustion chamber and ignited with an electrically heated kanthal wire. A high-speed video camera was provided to obtain the time histories of the squared droplet diameter which were available to determine the burning rate constant. The results showed that the d-square law was valid for all the conditions of the present experiments. The burning rate constant increased with the ambient pressure and did not show a peak around the ambient pressure equal to the critical pressure of methanol. Also evident was that the burning rate constant decreased with gravitational acceleration.

Mots clés: high pressure; microgravity; Droplet combustion

Domaines: Milieux fluides et réactifs; Physique de l'espace [physics.space-ph]

Daisuke Segawa, Toshikazu Kadota, Akira Nakainkyo, Christian Chauveau, Iskender Gokalp, et al.. Combustion of a Methanol Droplet under High Pressure Conditions. International Journal of Microgravity Science and Application, 1998, 15 (4), pp.197-205. ⟨hal-02015649⟩