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A CFD study on spray characteristics of heavy fuel oil-based microalgae biodiesel blends under ultra-high injection pressures

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Abstract

Blended fuels have intrinsic potential for substitution with petro fuel for the purpose of emission control and fuel efficiency improvement. Therefore, in the current study, non-reacting spray characteristics of heavy fuel oil (HFO) combined with microalgal biodiesel as blended fuel under ultra-high injection pressure is numerically investigated. To accomplish this task with spray morphology, the characteristics of spray penetration, spray cone angle, spray volume and Sauter Mean Diameter (SMD) are studied. The OpenFOAM CFD toolbox is employed with Eulerian–Lagrangian multiphase formulation for fuel discrete phase interacting with gaseous continuous phase modeling. Lagrangian particle tracking (LPT) method is applied for the fuel droplet tracking by Lagrangian scheme. Moreover, hybrid breakup model of KH-RT and k − ϵ as the standard model in Reynolds Averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) are used for liquid fuel core breakup and turbulence modeling, respectively. Computational results are validated against existing experimental data for HFO and good agreements are displayed. Longer spray penetration length with sharper tip, wider spray cone angle, more obese spray volume and lower SMD are obtained for the blended fuels. Overall, it is concluded that HFO-microalgal biodiesel blended fuels present a better fuel–air mixture and improves atomization procedure under high and ultra high injection pressures.

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Abbreviations

HFO:

Heavy fuel oil

PM:

Particulate matter

RANS:

Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes

RMSE:

Root mean square error

ASOI:

After start of injection

SMD:

Sauter mean diameter

SIMPLE:

Semi implicit method for pressure linked equations

LPT:

Lagrangian particle tracking

KH:

Kelvin–Helmholtz

RT:

Rayleigh–Taylor

\({\text{f}}_{\text{co}}^{ \cdot }\) :

Contribution due to the effects of collision of the droplets

\({\text{f}}_{\text{br}}^{ \cdot }\) :

Contribution due to the effects of droplets breakup

We l :

Liquid fuel Weber number

We g :

Gas Weber number

u rel :

Relative speed between droplets and ambient gas (m s−1)

D d :

Diameter of fuel droplet (m)

Re l :

Liquid fuel Reynolds number

r 0 :

Droplet radius before breakup (m)

r c :

Radius of child droplets (m)

Oh :

Ohnesorge number

T :

Taylor number

a :

Droplet acceleration

L bu :

Breakup length

Re l :

Liquid fuel Reynolds number

Λ KH :

Kelvin–Helmholtz wavelength (m)

Λ RT :

Rayleigh–Taylor wavelength (m)

Ω KH :

Kelvin–Helmholtz growth rate (s−1)

Ω RT :

Rayleigh–Taylor growth rate (s−1)

ρ g :

Gas density (kg m−3)

ρ 1 :

Liquid fuel density (kg m−3)

τ bu :

Characteristic time (s)

σ :

Surface tension (N m−1)

ν g :

Gas kinematic viscosity (m s−1)

ω :

Instability wave growth rate

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Marine Technology, Amirkabir University of Technology, Hafez Ave, No 424, P.O. Box 15875-4413, Tehran, Iran

    Parviz Ghadimi, Hashem Nowruzi, Mahdi Yousefifard & Mohammad A. Feizi Chekab

Authors
  1. Parviz Ghadimi
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  2. Hashem Nowruzi
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  3. Mahdi Yousefifard
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  4. Mohammad A. Feizi Chekab
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Correspondence to Parviz Ghadimi.

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Ghadimi, P., Nowruzi, H., Yousefifard, M. et al. A CFD study on spray characteristics of heavy fuel oil-based microalgae biodiesel blends under ultra-high injection pressures. Meccanica 52, 153–170 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11012-016-0410-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11012-016-0410-6

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