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Heat Transfer Research

ISSN for PRINT: 1064-2285

Institutional price:	$2485.00
Issues per year:	8

Best Paper Award Selection - Editorial Board Site

2007, Volume38

94 pages

DOI: 10.1615/HeatTransRes.v38.i4

Issue price - $363.00

Thermal Explosion in a Flammable Gas Containing Fuel Droplets: Asymptotic Analysis

Igor Goldfarb
Department of Mathematics and Computer Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, P.O.B. 653, Beer-Sheva 84105, Israel

Sergei S. Sazhin
Sir Harry Ricardo Laboratories, Internal Combustion Engines Group, School of Environment and Technology, Faculty of Science and Engineering, The University of Brighton, Cockcroft Building, Brighton BN2 4GJ, UK

Ann Zinoviev
Department of Software Engineering, Negev Academic Colle of Engineering, 71 Bazel Street, Beer-Sheva 84100, Israel

ABSTRACT

The problem of thermal explosion in a flammable gas mixture with addition of volatile fuel droplets is studied based on the asymptotic method of integral manifolds. The model for the radiative heating of droplets takes into account their semitransparency. The results of the analysis are applied to the modeling of a thermal explosion in diesel engines. Two distinct dynamic situations have been considered, depending on the initial droplet concentration. These are a "far zone" (a small initial liquid volume fraction and small droplet radii) and a "near zone" (a large initial liquid volume fraction and large droplet radii). It has been pointed out that small droplets' heating and evaporation time in the far zone is smaller than the chemical ignition delay of the fuel vapor/air mixture. The total ignition delay decreases with an increasing initial gas temperature. In the near zone for large droplets, the process starts with the initial gas cooling and slight heating of droplets. This is followed by a relatively slow heating of gas, due to chemical reactions, and further droplet heating. The total ignition delay in the near zone is larger than in the far zone. It is expected that before thermal explosion in the near zone takes place, the droplets break-up and are removed from this zone. Effects of thermal radiation are generally negligible for small droplets but are noticeable for large ones.