Optical characterization of ethane droplets in the vicinity of critical pressure

Abstract

The characterization of the properties of fuel droplets around the critical pressure is an experimental challenge. The aim of this study is to measure the size and the refractive index of droplets in high pressure conditions, close to the ones of the critical point. For this purpose, an experimental facility of injection of quasi-monodispersed droplets at high pressure has been developed. Rainbow refractometry has been used to probe droplets in the pressure range 1–50 bar. For water and ethanol droplets, evolutions of their index of refraction with pressure were obtained. For measurements with a liquid fluid near its critical point, ethane was selected because its critical point is 48.7 bar and 32.2 °C. Refractive index measurements on ethane droplets were carried out in the range of pressure and temperature 40–46 bar and 18–25 °C respectively. These unique results show that the rainbow refractometry diagnosis offers undeniable potentials for studying fuel injection under transcritical thermodynamic conditions.