Flame Spread Mechanism of a Blended Fuel Droplet Array at Supercritical Pressure

Flame spread experiments of a fuel droplet array were performed using a microgravity environment. N-decane, 1-octadecene, and the blends (50% : 50% vol.) of these fuels were used and the experiments were conducted at pressures up to 5.0 MPa, which are over the critical pressure of these fuels. Observations of the flame spread phenomenon were conducted for OH radical emission images recorded using a high-speed video camera. The flame spread rates were calculated based on the time history of the spreading forehead of the OH emission images. The flame spread rate of the n-decane droplet-array decreased with pressure and had its minimum at a pressure around half of the critical pressure and then increased again with pressure. It had its maximum at a pressure over the critical pressure and then decreased gradually. The pressure dependence of flame spread rate of 1-octadecene were similar to those of n-decan, but the magnitude of the spread rate was much smaller than that of n-decane. The variation of the flame spread for the blended fuel was similar to that of n-decane in the pressure range from atmospheric pressure to near the critical pressure of the blended fuel. When the pressure increased further, it approached to that of 1-octadecene. Numerically estimated gas-liquid equilibrium states proved that almost all the fuel gas which evaporated from the droplet at ordinary pressure consisted of n-decane whereas near and over the critical pressure, the composition of the fuel gas was almost the same as that of the liquid phase, so that the effects of 1-octadecene on the flame spread rate was significant.