Abstract
The addition of methanol holds significant potential for enhancing the spray atomization of biodiesel, particularly at high altitudes. The aim of this work is to use experiments and CFD methods to study the effects of methanol addition to biodiesel in different ratios (0 %, 10 %, and 20 % in volume) on the spray characteristics, and compare the differences of those spray and evaporation characteristics under diesel working conditions between various altitudes. The experimental results show that biodiesel/methanol blends have shorter spray tip penetration and larger cone angle compared to biodiesel under non-vaporizing conditions. However, the impact of methanol on the spray characteristics decreases with increased injection pressure. Simulation results show that, at high altitudes, biodiesel/methanol blends have shorter liquid penetration but little change in gas penetration than biodiesel. Sauter mean diameter (SMD) decreases with increasing methanol ratio, furthermore, this trend becomes more pronounced at higher altitudes. The evaporation rate of blends increases with the rise in the methanol ratio; nevertheless, this promotional effect diminishes with increasing altitude.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the contribution of project supported by the Graduate Student Innovation Fund Project of Jiangsu Province (KYLX16_0890), China; the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20190972), China.
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Huaping Xu is s currently working as an Associate Professor at the School of Energy and Power Engineering, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology. He received his Ph.D. in Power engineering and engineering Thermophysics from Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, China. His research interests include fuel spray and atomization, clean combustion and pollutant control.
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Xu, H., Gan, Z. & Fan, X. Experimental and numerical investigation on spray characteristics of biodiesel/methanol blends in a constant volume chamber. J Mech Sci Technol 38, 2063–2072 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-024-0336-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-024-0336-1