Spray Impingement and Evaporation Through Porous Media Available to Purchase

This paper presents an experimental study on spray impingement and fuel evaporation processes in porous media. Aviation-type kerosene (Jet-A) was used as the fuel and an open-cell, silicon carbide coated, carbon-carbon ceramic foam was used as the porous medium. The fuel was sprayed into a coflowing, preheated air environment using an air-blast atomizer. A Phase Doppler Particle Analyzer (PDPA) was used to measure Sauter mean diameter (SMD), liquid mass flux, and axial velocity of the droplets. The porous medium was resistively heated to simulate heat feedback from the combustion zone. An organic vapor analyzer, based on catalytic oxidation, was used to measure the concentration of kerosene vapor downstream of the porous medium. The temperature and flow rate of coflow air were held constant, while the fuel flow rate, and hence, the overall equivalence ratio, was varied from 0.3 to 0.6. Higher liquid mass flux was recorded away from the spray core region, due to the swirling action of atomizing air. Surface temperature measurements of porous media revealed the uniformity of thermo-electrical properties of the medium. Vapor concentration measurements with combustion heat feedback (a heat input of 33 kW/m²) increased the average vapor concentration by 63% and 43% than that of no heat feedback case for 0.3 and 0.6 equivalence ratios respectively.