Numerical modeling of multi-component fuel spray evaporation process

The overarching goal of this study is to implement computationally effective models that can predict the evaporation of multi-component fuel droplets/spray using a multidimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code. The new approach for modeling heat and mass transfer inside a droplet accounts for finite thermal conductivity, finite mass diffusivity, and turbulence effects within the atomizing liquid droplet/spray for multi-component fuel droplet evaporation. This model was developed and validated against experimental measurements for single droplet vaporization and one-way evaporating sprays previously, and is implemented into CFD code for two-way coupled numerical modeling study in this research. A new coalescence model for droplets with different mixture composition was also implemented into CFD code in this research. Thereby, the evaporation of multi-component diesel fuel surrogate spray in hot gas environment was predicted and compared with available experimental measurements. The model shows good predictive capability and was demonstrated to improve the accuracy of multi-phase flow simulations.