Evaporation of hydrocarbon compounds, including gasoline and diesel fuel, on heated metal surfaces

Abstract

An investigation was carried out on the evaporation of various hydrocarbon liquids on heated surfaces. Single and multicomponent hydrocarbon compounds were used, including hexane, heptane, octane, a hexane—octane mixture, gasoline and diesel fuel. The heated surfaces included aluminium, mild steel, cast iron and copper. Tests were also carried out with different surface textures and surface coatings. The motivation for this work was a desire to improve understanding of the evaporation processes taking place in the inlet port and, to a lesser extent, within the combustion chamber of internal combustion engines. The hydrocarbon compounds were released on to the heated surfaces as individual small droplets, and the subsequent evaporation was recorded using a CCD (charge coupled device) camera. These observations were then used to ascertain the effects of material, surface temperature, surface texture, surface coating and liquid composition on the heat flux and other aspects of droplet behaviour.