Laser Diagnostic Investigation on the Spray and Combustion with Butanol-Biodiesel-Diesel Fuel Blends

Abstract

. In this paper, blends of butanol-biodiesel-diesel were tested inside a constant volume chamber to investigate liquid spray and combustion of the fuels. With high-speed camera and synchronized copper vapor laser, spray penetration during injection is recorded since it has a higher light reflectivity. Various ambient temperatures and fuel composition were investigated. There is a sudden drop in spray penetration at 800 K and 900 K, but not at 1000 K and 1200 K. When the spray penetration of the butanol-biodiesel-diesel blends is compared to that of the biodiesel-diesel blends, under non-combusting environment, a sudden drop in spray penetration length is also observed at 1100 K. High speed imaging shows that, for the non-combusting case, at 1100 K, the tip of the spray jet erupts into a plume sometime after injection for the butanol-biodiesel-diesel blend. The same is not seen with the biodiesel-diesel blend, neither at lower ambient temperature of 900 K. It is concluded that micro-explosion can occurs under particular conditions for the butanol-biodiesel-diesel blend, and the results is consistent with previous study in the literature.