Extinction condition of counterflow spray diffusion flame with polydisperse water spray

•We examine effect of water spray on suppressing counterflow spray diffusion flame.•Spray flame appears in flat and envelope flames surrounding individual droplets.•Tendency of extinction spray flame with and without water spray is similar.•Optimum water droplet size suppressing spray flame is smaller than gaseous flame.•Optimum water spray is predicted using stokes and vaporization Damköhler number.

The effect of polydisperse water droplet size distribution on the burning behavior and extinction condition of counterflow spray diffusion flame was investigated experimentally in this study. N-heptane as liquid fuel spray and nitrogen as a carrier gas were introduced from the lower duct while water spray and oxidizer consisting of oxygen and nitrogen was issued from the upper duct. The burning behavior of spray flame for different fuel droplet size with and without water spray was observed and the extinction condition of counterflow spray diffusion flame was characterized by oxygen concentration at extinction. The results show that the minimum value of oxygen concentration at extinction for counterflow spray diffusion flame with water spray is similar to the extinction condition without water spray for higher mean droplet diameter of water. The minimum value of oxygen concentration at extinction shifts to the smaller fuel droplet size when decreasing the water droplet size. For fuel droplet size higher than 48 μm, the optimum of water droplet size for suppressing counterflow spray diffusion flame was smaller than gaseous flame. The explanation of optimum water droplet size based on the coupled effect of Stokes number and vaporization Damköhler number can be used for prediction of the effectiveness of water droplet on the suppression of counterflow spray diffusion flame.