Components of Combustion Process

Combustion in diesel engines is very complex and until the 1990s, its detailed mechanisms were not well
understood. For decades its complexity seemed to defy researchers’ attempts to unlock its many secrets
despite the availability of modern tools such as high-speed photography used in “transparent” engines,
computational power of contemporary computers, and the many mathematical models designed to mimic
combustion in diesel engines. The application of laser-sheet imaging to the conventional diesel combustion
process in the 1990s was key to greatly increasing the understanding of this process.
This “conventional” diesel combustion is primarily mixing controlled with perhaps some premixed
combustion that can occur due to mixing of fuel and air prior to ignition. This is different from combustion
strategies that attempt to significantly increase the proportion of premixed burning that occurs—such as
various flavours of low temperature combustion.
The basic premise of diesel combustion is its unique way of releasing the chemical energy stored in the
fuel. To perform this process, oxygen must be made available to the fuel in a specific manner to facilitate
combustion. One of the most important aspects of this process is the mixing of fuel and air, which is often
referred to as mixture preparation.
In diesel engines, fuel is often injected into the engine cylinder near the end of the compression stroke, just
a few crank angle degrees before top dead centre. The liquid fuel is usually injected at high velocity as one
or more jets through small orifices or nozzles in the injector tip. It atomizes into small droplets and
penetrates into the combustion chamber. The atomized fuel absorbs heat from the surrounding heated
compressed air, vaporizes, and mixes with the surrounding high-temperature high-pressure air. As the
piston continues to move closer to top dead center (TDC), the mixture (mostly air) temperature reaches
the fuel’s ignition temperature. Rapid ignition of some premixed fuel and air occurs after the ignition delay
period. This rapid ignition is considered the start of combustion (also the end of the ignition delay period)
and is marked by a sharp cylinder pressure increase as combustion of the fuel-air mixture takes place.
Increased pressure resulting from the premixed combustion compresses and heats the unburned portion
of the charge and shortens the delay before its ignition. It also increases the evaporation rate of the
remaining fuel. Atomization, vaporization, fuel vapor-air mixing, and combustion continue until all the
injected fuel has combusted.
Diesel combustion is characterized by lean overall A/F ratio. The lowest average A/F ratio is often found at
peak torque conditions. To avoid excessive smoke formation, A/F ratio at peak torque is usually maintained
above 25:1, well above the stoichiometric (chemically correct) equivalence ratio of about 14.4:1. In
turbocharged diesel engines the A/F ratio at idle may exceed 160:1. Therefore, excess air present in the
cylinder after the fuel has combusted continues to mix with burning and already burned gases throughout
the combustion and expansion processes. At the opening of the exhaust valve, excess air along with the
combustion products are exhausted, which explains the oxidizing nature of diesel exhaust. Although
combustion occurs after vaporized fuel mixes with air, forms a locally rich but combustible mixture, and
the proper ignition temperature is reached, the overall A/F ratio is lean. In other words, the majority of the
air inducted into the cylinder of a diesel engine is compressed and heated, but never engages in the
combustion process. Oxygen in the excess air helps oxidize gaseous hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide,
reducing them to extremely small concentrations in the exhaust gas.
The following factors play a primary role in the diesel combustion process:
 The inducted charge air, its temperature, and its kinetic energy in several dimensions.
 The injected fuel’s atomization, spray penetration, temperature, and chemical characteristics.
While these two factors are most important, there are other parameters that may dramatically influence
them and therefore play a secondary, but still important role in the combustion process. For instance:
  Intake port design, which has a strong influence on charge air motion (especially as it enters the
cylinder) and ultimately the mixing rate in the combustion chamber. The intake port design may
also influence charge air temperature. This may be accomplished by heat transfer from the water
jacket to the charge air through the intake port surface area.
 Intake valve size, which controls the total mass of air inducted into the cylinder in a finite amount of
time.
 Compression ratio, which influences fuel vaporization and consequently mixing rate and
combustion quality.
 Injection pressure, which controls the injection duration for a given nozzle hole size.
 Nozzle hole geometry (length/diameter), which controls the spray penetration as well as
atomization.
 Spray geometry, which directly impacts combustion quality through air utilization. For instance, a
larger spray cone angle may place the fuel on top of the piston, and outside the combustion bowl in
open chamber DI diesel engines. This condition would lead to excessive smoke (incomplete
combustion) because of depriving the fuel of access to the air available in the combustion bowl
(chamber). Wide cone angles may also cause the fuel to be sprayed on the cylinder walls, rather
than inside the combustion bowl where it is required. Fuel sprayed on the cylinder wall will
eventually be scraped downward to the oil sump where it will shorten the lube oil life. As the spray
angle is one of the variables that impacts the rate of mixing of air into the fuel jet near the outlet of
the injector, it can have a significant impact on the overall combustion process.
 Valve configuration, which controls the injector position. Two-valve systems force an inclined
injector position, which implies uneven spray arrangement that leads to compromised fuel/air
mixing. On the other hand, four-valve designs allow for vertical injector installation, symmetric fuel
spray arrangement and equal access to the available air by each of the fuel sprays.
 Top piston ring position, which controls the dead space between the piston top land (area between
top piston ring groove and the top of the piston crown), and the cylinder liner. This dead
space/volume traps air that is compressed during the compression stroke and expands without
ever engaging in the combustion process.
It is therefore important to realize that the combustion system of the diesel engine is not limited to the
combustion bowl, injector sprays, and their immediate surroundings. Rather, it includes any part,
component, or system that may affect the final outcome of the combustion process.
As is apparent from the earlier sections on diesel fuel injection, diesel fuel injection systems have seen
monumental changes starting in the later part of the 20th century. The P-L-N injection systems that
characterised the diesel engine from the 1920s has all but disappeared from diesel engines intended for
the most advanced markets. This evolution has been almost entirely driven by the need to reduce exhaust
emissions to levels that were not though possible even as late as the 1990s. These advances in fuel
injection system hardware have enabled such features as:

 completely flexible injection timing,

 higher fuel injection pressures and the ability to adjust fuel pressure over the engine speed/load
map to suit the particular engine operating conditions,
 tailoring the injection rate over the course of a single injection event and
 multiple injection events.
While these features have been fundamentally driven by the need to lower emissions, in many cases, they
can also be utilized to reduce noise, increase specific power and manage exhaust temperatures for
improving the performance of aftertreatment systems that can be used to achieve further reductions in
exhaust emissions.
NOx Emissions Control. Adjustments in injection timing are one of the fundamental means of achieving reductions in
NOx emissions. Mechanical fuel injection systems were the first to incorporate variable injection timing. However, as
electronics become more prevalent in diesel engine control, electronically controlled injectors became the preferred
means of achieving variable injection timing and offered unprecedented flexibility in injection timings settings. The
mechanisms for reduced NOx by injection timing retard are discussed elsewhere.

While NOx reduction via injection timing retard can be effective, there can be significant trade-offs in terms of fuel
consumption and PM emissions. In many cases, these trade-offs must be dealt with through additional engine design
enhancements. One early approach to reduce the fuel economy penalty associated with retarding injection timing
was to reduce ignition delay by using a high compression ratio and higher injection pressures. Additional measures
such as reductions in oil consumption, increases in charge air pressure, increases in injection pressure, reductions in
injector nozzle hole size, reductions in engine friction losses, reduction in intake manifold temperature, etc. can also
be taken to control fuel consumption and PM emissions increases.

Prior to the introduction of electronically controlled injection systems, fuel injection timing was typically fixed at a
constant value over the entire engine operating map. However, variable injection timing systems were sometimes
used for additional flexibility and to compensate for shortcomings in engine performance. Some PLN systems
incorporated a variable timing mechanism to compensate for changes in ignition delay with engine speed in order to
maintain a more constant, and optimum, combustion phasing. In other cases, the fixed injection timing required to
ensure that NOx emissions over the certification cycle were met could lead to excess hydrocarbons at light load,
acceleration smoke, cold smoke and idle roughness that could be overcome by advancing injection timing at light
loads with only a minor increase in duty-cycle NOx emissions.

Between 1987 and 1998 when electronically controlled injection timing retard was the primary means for reducing
NOx emissions, one means that many North American engine manufacturers commonly used to offset fuel
consumption penalties associated with retarded fuel injection timing was a dual-mapping strategy in electronically
controlled engines. In this approach, a nominal injection timing setting that assured regulatory compliance with NOx
emission standards was used in transient operation such as during emission certification test cycles. However, when
it was determined that a vehicle was in cruise mode, injection timing was advanced to improve fuel economy. This
provided a significant fuel economy improvement under the highway cruise condition commonly encountered by
heavy-duty trucks but also increased NOx emissions significantly.

Injection timing on its own is limited in its ability to reduce NOx emissions. In addition to the trade-offs already
discussed. NOx emissions can start to increase again if timing is retarded sufficiently or the engine can start to
misfire. This places a practical lower limit of around 4 g/kWh NOx that can be achieved with injection timing retard.
Further NOx reductions have required additional measures such as injection rate shaping, pilot injections, intake
valve timing control, EGR and NOx aftertreatment. While injection timing retard is no longer the primary means of
NOx control, it is still an important tool that can be used in conjunction with other control measures to ensure
regulatory NOx limits are met.

Thermal Management. With the introduction of high efficiency NOx aftertreatment, retarded injection timing is less
important for NOx emission control. However, it is an important tool that can be used to increase exhaust gas
enthalpy and temperature for thermal management of exhaust aftertreatment systems. It is especially useful during
cold starts before the aftertreatment temperature is sufficiently high to provide significant emission reductions. The
lower NOx emissions associated with retarded injection timing are especially important under these conditions to
limit overall drive cycle emissions.

Figure 1 illustrates the effect of retarded injection timing on turbocharger turbine outlet temperature for a light-duty
diesel engine operating at a low load representative of the NEDC cycle. At this light load condition, exhaust
temperature can be raised to 235°C for both cold and warm coolant temperatures. This represents an increase of
about 45°C at 30°C coolant temperature and about 25°C for at 90°C coolant temperature. It should be noted that the
EGR rate is lowered at retarded injection timing in this example in order to maintain constant NOx emissions.
Figure 1. Effect of main injection timing on LP turbine outlet temperature; Cold (30°C) and warm (90°C) coolant
temperature; 2000 rpm, 2 bar BMEP, 1.2 bar intake pressure; 60 ppm NOx
1.5 L DI diesel engine, 140 kW/380 Nm, Euro 6/EPA Tier 2 Bin 5 emissions; two stage turbocharging system.

While the primary reason for increased exhaust temperature is an increase in exhaust losses due to a later
combustion phasing, several other factors also contribute to the increased exhaust temperature. The retarded
combustion phasing decreases engine efficiency and thus requires a larger amount of fuel to be burned to produce
the same brake torque that will contribute to the higher exhaust temperature. It is also reported that for the data in
Figure 1, air fuel ratio decreases as injection timing is retarded . A reduction in air fuel ratio would further contribute
to increased exhaust temperature.

Design of the diesel fuel injector nozzle is critical to the performance and emissions of modern diesel engines. Some
of the important injector nozzle design parameters include details of the injector seat, the injector sac and nozzle
hole size and shape. These features not only affect the combustion characteristics of the diesel engine, they can also
affect the stability of the emissions and performance over the lifetime of the engine and the mechanical durability of
the injector.

All nozzles must produce a fuel spray that meets the requirements of the performance and emissions goals of the
market for which the engine is produced regardless of details of the fuel system design (i.e., regardless if the fuel
system is of the common rail, unit injector, unit pump or pump-line-nozzle type). Additionally, specific requirements
for injection nozzles can also depend on the fuel system type

 Common rail—nozzle operates under more demanding tribological conditions and must be better designed
to prevent leakage.

 Unit injector/unit pump—pressure pulsing conditions create more demanding fatigue strength requirements.

 Pump-line-nozzle—hydraulic dead volume must be minimized.

Figure 1. Basic diesel injector nozzle with single cone seat

Figure 1 shows a basic overview of the major components

of a diesel fuel injector nozzle

Fuel Atomization
The first step in the mixture formation process in the
conventional, mixing controlled diesel
engine combustion is spray formation. Figure 1 shows a
spray formed by injecting fuel from a single hole in
stagnant air . Upon leaving the nozzle hole, the jet
becomes completely turbulent a very short distance from
the point of discharge and mixes with the surrounding air. This entrained air is carried away by the jet and increases
the mass-flow in the x-direction and causes the jet to spread out in the y-direction. Two factors lead to a decrease in
the jet velocity: the conservation of momentum when air is entrained into the jet and frictional drag of the liquid
droplets. Figure 1 gives the velocity distribution at two cross sections. The fuel velocity is highest at the centerline
and decreases to zero at the interface between the zone of disintegration (or the conical envelope of the spray) and
ambient air.

Figure 1. Schematic of a spray from a single hole nozzle

Primary Atomization. Near the injector nozzle, the continuous liquid jet disintegrates into filaments and drops
through interaction with the gas in the cylinder. This initial break-up of the continuous liquid jet is referred to
as primary atomization.

In general, the atomization of a jet can be divided into different regimes depending on the jet velocity :

 Rayleigh Regime. In this low jet velocity regime, breakup is due to the unstable growth of surface waves
caused by surface tension and results in drops larger than the jet diameter.

 First Wind Induced Breakup Regime. In this medium jet velocity regime, forces due to the relative motion of
the jet and the surrounding air augment the surface tension force, and lead to drop sizes of the order of the
jet diameter.

 Second Wind-Induced Breakup Regime. In this high jet velocity regime breakup is characterized by divergence
of the jet spray after an intact or undisturbed length downstream of the nozzle. The unstable growth of
short-wavelength waves induced by the relative motion between the liquid and surrounding air produces
droplets whose average size is much less than the jet diameter.

 Atomization Regime. At very high jet velocity, breakup of the outer surface of the jet occurs at, or before, the
nozzle exit plane. The average droplet diameter is much smaller than the nozzle diameter. Aerodynamic
interactions at the liquid/gas interface appear to be one major component of the atomization mechanism in
this regime.
 Diesel fuel is normally injected into diesel engines under pressures of the order of 108 N/m2.
The mean droplet diameter of a typical diesel spray is about 15μm with maximum diameters of
approximately 70μm. Air temperatures in the combustion chamber approach the critical
temperature of fuel so that droplets evaporate rapidly and the major portion of the entire spray
is in the gaseous form. At low injection pressures, atomization is less effective than at higher
pressures and both liquid ligaments and droplets with diameters greater than 100μm have been
found in diesel engines.
 Because of the very high pressures and temperatures under which diesel engines operate,
atomization and evaporation characteristics of diesel sprays can be substantially different from
those of sprays burning under lower pressures and temperatures. Radcliffe and Hiroyasu 41
 measured droplet sizes and distributions of diesel sprays under low air temperature conditions.
Several attempts have been made to study the specific effects of pressure and temperature on
spray characteristics. Photographic observations show that in atmospheric conditions long
ligaments of liquid fuel are observed in the central core of the spray. The break-up of the liquid
can be seen to take place along the entire length of the spray. The break-up of the spray is not
completed for some considerable distance downstream from the nozzle and the number density
of droplets is smaller at the periphery of the spray compared with that occurring at a higher gas
pressure. The high gas pressures result in higher gas densities, which significantly improve the
gas entrainment and the atomization. At the high gas pressures used under normal diesel
engine operating conditions, the spray usually breaks up into droplets rapidly, soon after the
liquid emerges from the nozzle.
 Gas temperatures at the high pressures in diesel engines are typically 200°C higher than the
boiling point of diesel fuel and, under these conditions, it has been calculated that droplets
would completely evaporate within 10mm from the nozzle exit. The precise temperature and
pressure conditions within diesel sprays have not yet been clearly established and, in the direct-
photography studies which have been made, it has so far not been possible to determine clearly
the extent to which the fuel spray remains in the liquid phase.
 For a number of diesel injection systems, the injection pressure becomes very low towards the
end of the injection period and, under these conditions, large droplets are formed. Poor
atomization, due to inadequate injection pressure, results in the formation of long liquid
ligaments and droplets of the order of 100μm. This poor, low pressure, atomization is one of the
main factors resulting in the formation of smoke and unburned hydrocarbons in diesel engines.
Development studies have shown that smoke levels can be reduced by increasing injection
pressures and reducing the size of the injector holes—both of which lead to finer spray
atomization.
 The use of laser optical techniques in diesel engine research has made very substantial progress
in recent years and important developments have been made at the Arnold Engineering
Development Center. By inserting quartz windows in diesel combustion chambers, in order to
allow optical access, measurements have been made using the following techniques: high-speed
photography, holographic flow visualization, holographic fuel droplet sizing, resonance
absorption spectroscopy and laser velocimetry.
 High-speed photography, up to 20,000 frame/s, has been used to follow the injection and
combustion processes in diesel combustion chambers. The position, time and propagation of
combustion have been determined and smoke formation and turbulence in the gas flow have
been observed. Recording high resolution images of small fuel droplets by direct photography
has not been very successful, except when measurements are made of a very thin plane of
droplets.

Initial break-up in diesel fuel jets generally occurs in the atomization regime. The dominant mechanisms driving this
process are not entirely clear. Interdependent phenomena such as turbulence and collapse of cavitating bubbles may
initiate velocity fluctuations in the flow within the nozzle of the injector that destabilize the exiting liquid jet. The
unsteadiness of the injection velocity and drop shedding also play an important role .

For most diesel fuel injection systems, jet atomization at the nozzle exit plane occurs when:

√(ρa/ρf) < 18.3/√A(1)

where ρa and ρf are the densities of ambient gas and fuel, respectively, and A is a function of the length/diameter
(Lo/Do) ratio of the nozzle:

A = 3.0 + 0.28 (Lo/Do)(2)

Secondary Break-Up. After the initial disintegration of the liquid jet and the initial formation of droplets,
aerodynamically induced droplet breakup further reduces the size of the droplets as they penetrate into the
surrounding air. This secondary breakup combined with evaporation ensures that droplets continue to decrease in
size as they move along the x-axis (see Figure 1).
Secondary break-up is assumed to be controlled by the droplet Weber Number (We) which is defined as the ratio of
the inertia forces to the surface tension forces:

We = ρa Dd urel2 / σf(3)

where
ρa - ambient density
Dd - droplet diameter
urel - relative velocity between droplet and the ambient gases
σf - surface tension of fuel.

This secondary break-up can be classified into a number of different modes depending on Weber number, as shown
in Table 1

Table 1
Secondary droplet break-up classification

We Break-Up Mode

We ≤ 12 vibrational

12 < We ≤ 18 bag

18 < We ≤ 45 bag-and-steamen

45 < We ≤ 100 chaotic

100 < We ≤ 350 sheet stripping

350 < We ≤ 1000 wave crest stripping

1000 < We ≤ 2670 catastrophic

In modern diesel engines, the droplet Weber number are typically in excess of 100 indicating that stripping and
catastrophic regimes are the most important modes of secondary breakup. Secondary break-up starts at a finite
distance from the injector, on the order of several mm, and then stops about 15-20 mm from the injector. Further
reductions in droplet size downstream of this distance can be attributed almost entirely to evaporation .

Droplets experience considerable deformation during break-up and are not in fact spherical. Droplet distortion, as
measured by the ratio of the long axis diameter of an elongated drop to a spherical drop, can be about 5 under
typical modern diesel injection conditions. This increases the surface area of the drop by a factor of 7-10 and has a
profound effect on fuel vaporization. This deformation ensures that the fuel vaporization rate equals the injection
rate shortly after the start of injection

Combustion Chamber Geometry

Design Considerations
Diesel combustion is known to be very lean with A/F ratios of 25:1 at peak torque, 30:1 at rated speed/maximum
power conditions, and over 150:1 at idle for turbocharged engines. Yet, this extra air does not enter into the
combustion process. It is rather heated during combustion and exhausted—causing diesel exhaust to be lean. Even
though the average air-fuel ratio is lean, if proper care is not taken in the design process, regions of the combustion
chamber can be fuel rich and lead to excessive smoke emissions. A key objective in designing the combustion bowl
then is to ensure that mixing of fuel and air is adequate to mitigate the impact of fuel rich regions and allow the
engine to meet its performance and emissions targets. Turbulence in the air motion within the combustion bowl is
found to be beneficial to the mixing process and can be used to achieve this goal. Swirl induced by the intake port
can be enhanced or squish can be generated by the piston as it approaches the cylinder head to create more
turbulence during the compression stroke through proper design of the bowl in the piston crown.

Combustion chamber design has the most significant impact on particulate emissions. It can also have an influence
on unburned hydrocarbons and CO. While NOx emissions can be influenced by bowl design, bulk gas properties play
a very important role in their exhaust levels. However, because of the NOx/PM trade-off, combustion chamber
designs have had to evolve as NOx emission limits have decreased—primarily to avoid the increases in PM emissions
that would otherwise result.

K-Factor. An important parameter for optimizing a DI diesel combustion system is the proportion of available air
participating in the combustion process. The K-factor, calculated as the ratio of the piston bowl volume to the
clearance volume, is an approximate measure of the proportion of air available for combustion. Reducing engine
displacement leads to a decrease in the relative K-factor and hence a tendency for deterioration in the combustion
behaviour. For a given displacement and at constant compression ratio, the K-factor can be improved by selecting a
longer stroke. Selection of the bore-to-stroke for an engine can be influenced by the K-factor consideration and
several others factors including: engine packaging, ports and valves, etc. A particularly key issue in setting the
maximum bore-to-stroke ratio is the very challenging cylinder head packaging required to accommodate a four-valve
per cylinder design and a common-rail fuel injection system with a centrally-located injector. Cylinder heads are
complicated to design due to the many passages including water cooling, cylinder
head hold down bolts, intake and exhaust ports, injectors, glow plugs, valves,
valve stems, valve recesses and valve seats, as well as other passages such as
those used for exhaust gas recirculation in some designs.

Open vs. Re-Entrant Combustion Chambers. Combustion chambers in modern

direct injection diesel engines can be designated as either open or re-entrant. If
the top opening of the bowl in the piston is smaller in diameter than the
maximum bowl diameter, it is a re-entrant bowl. These bowls have a “lip”. If there
is no lip it is an open combustion chamber.

Types of Combustion Bowls

Mexican Hat Bowls

Diesel engine combustion chambers with a “Mexican hat” bowl, also known as
the “Hesselman” chamber have been known since at least the 1920s . These open
combustion chambers were commonly used until about 1990 in heavy-duty
engines before the re-entrant bowl became more important. Figure 1 illustrates
the general shape of this type of bowl. Note the straight sides at the outer
periphery . This combustion chamber shape is intended for relatively advanced
injection timing values were the bowl contains a bulk of the burning gases. It is
not well suited for retarded injection timing strategies.

Figure 1. Mexican hat combustion bowl

Figure 2 compares the soot emissions from a number of bowls including the
Mexican hat bowl. Note that some of the alternative geometry chambers (re-entrant bowls) provide better soot
oxidation at the engine conditions shown. Bowl shape had less influence on soot at higher engine speeds in this
study.
 Figure
2. Influence of combustion bowl shape on soot emissions

1690 rpm, 409 cm3/cyl., 14.5° BTDC injection timing, low load (~250 kPa BMEP).
Combustion chamber dimensions in mm.

Evaporation and Combustion of a Drop of Liquid Fuel

The accelerated depletion of oil reserves and the often-exorbitant cost of fossil fuels contribute to the development
of fuels from renewable sources. The objective of this work is to analyse the influence of the properties of renewable
fuels on their evaporation in natural convection, their combustion and their use in internal combustion engines. A
summary of the various numerical and experimental works from the literature has been presented in this work. This
work focuses on the numerical modelling of the natural convection evaporation of an isolated drop of a liquid fuel in
natural convection. The transfers in the liquid and vapour phases are described by the conservation equations
of mass and species, momentum and energy, the consideration of advection, azimuthal angle and thickness of the
vapour phase of the drop during evaporation of the drop.

The numerical approach to the problems of evaporation and combustion of fuel droplets has experienced a
considerable growth and interest of researchers in recent years. This new approach, for the most part, takes into
account the heat and mass transfer processes in the liquid and vapour phases as well as the coupling between them.
Therefore, it is important to have a broad understanding of the physical phenomena and mechanisms involved in the
evaporation and combustion of fuel droplets in diesel engines, especially in the design and optimization of
combustion chambers. In view of the complexity of nature to study the phenomena, the evaporation of an isolated
drop in natural convection is often studied and the spherically symmetrical model is representative.

Indeed, fuel evaporation in internal combustion engines has a strong influence on pollutant emissions, ignition delays
and overall combustion efficiency and when it enters a high temperature environment its evaporation and
combustion provide energy for propulsion. However, the two-phase flow phenomenon, existing in the evaporation of
a drop of liquid fuel, remains a very important area for researchers to explore. Despite the growth and development
of numerical techniques, difficulties with the two-phase flow phenomenon still exist and research continues to
address them. Thus, numerical techniques have been undertaken to solve this problem. These methods are mainly
oriented by following the time evolution of the radius squared regression and the evolution or transport of the
interface i.e. the surface temperature.

Also, during the fuel spray, interactions between the fuel droplets occur which produce different physical
mechanisms and make the evaporation phenomenon complex. Moreover, it is difficult to isolate and study these
physical mechanisms individually. Indeed, fuel, injected as a liquid spray, usually burns as a group rather than
individually in the diesel engine cylinder. Nevertheless, it appears that the study of the evaporation of an isolated
drop is generally carried out and gives a good first approximation of the evaporation phenomenon. Thus, several
authors have been interested in the phenomenon of evaporation of isolated drops, in particular the heat and mass
transfers that link the liquid and gaseous phases as well as the coupling between these two phases. The interest,
under these conditions of evaporation of isolated droplets of liquid fuel, was thus mainly focused on the
determination of the fundamental processes of heat and mass transfer. Despite the existence of many evaporation
models in the literature, most modelling studies do not take into account advection, which is however present in the
evaporation phenomenon of drops. In addition, not all evaporation models take into account the azimuth angle, yet
in real conditions, evaporation is accompanied by a variation in azimuth angle. Also, some studies neglect the
thickness of the gaseous phase, which makes it possible to follow the evolution of the evaporation of the drop and
the heat and mass transfer phenomena. Moreover, the evaporation of an isolated drop in an ambient medium is
driven by a relative motion of the external fluid and is subject to a set of forces. It’s therefore important to control
the nature of the flow (laminar or turbulent), the evolution of the physicochemical properties of the biofuel
(biodiesel and heptane in this case) and the surrounding environment. It is also necessary to follow the evolution and
the influence of the thermal and mass exchanges between the two phases, the influence of the possible interactions
between the particles and especially the effect that they generate on the variation of the physical properties of the
flow (drag force, relative speed, …).

In addition, it has been shown that the phenomenon of natural convection can considerably modify the rates of heat
and mass transfer between the evaporating fuel drops and the surrounding gas phase. Conditions in a combustion
chamber can potentially promote and reduce natural convection due to the high pressure environment and small
drop size. In this case, this phenomenon contributes to the increase of energy and mass transfers between the
evaporating drop and the surrounding gas. This means that under ambient conditions, the integration of these effects
could become essential in the determination of the evaporation phenomena of drops. Therefore, in this work, the
phenomena of natural convection, advection and azimuthal angle are taken into account.

The modelling of evaporation in natural convection of an isolated fuel drop has therefore been carried out. Spray
combustion earliest implementation was in the late nineteenth century for burning non-volatile liquid fuels.
Certainly, it remained the main technique of burning heavy fuel oils at present in spite of the use of fluidized bed
combustors. The burning liquid fuel spray is different from a premixed gaseous fuel; the former is being non uniform
in composition. The liquid fuel exists in the form of discrete variable size droplets moving in random directions and
variable velocities compared to the main stream. This form of non-uniformity in the combustible mixture leads to
irregularities in flame propagation through the spray, which makes the combustion zone geometrically poorly defined
. Liquid fuel combustion consists mainly of four processes, namely: spray formation, fuel evaporation, combustible
mixture formation, and mixture combustion. The fuel spray is usually formed by injecting the fuel through a nozzle at
very high pressure (up to 2000 bar) towards the combustion chamber (that is normally a hot environment). Once it
leaves the nozzle, the liquid jet takes the form of a conical spray as shown in Figure

Turbulence inside the liquid stream causes its break up into a bundle of liquid threads that subsequently progress
into a dense cloud of different size droplets that penetrate through the gas into the combustion zone, evaporate and
mix with the oxidizer to initiate (and then maintain) combustion. Liquid break up and droplet formation is known as
atomization. Atomization is important in combustion, since most of the combustion systems (such as the industrial
furnaces and internal combustion engines) work on liquid fuels that cannot be used before being atomized. And it is
essential in increasing the combustion efficiency in such systems because of the high liquid surface to mass ratio
generated after atomization, which in turn leads to higher rates of evaporation and mixing, and then combustion.

Atomization is defined as the conversion of liquid from its bulky form into a spray of droplets and other physical
dispersions of small particles in a gaseous environment. This could take place due to the kinetic energy of the liquid
being atomized, such as that carried out by the pressure atomizers, or by being in contact with high-velocity gaseous
substance, in what is called the air-assist atomizers, or as a result of an external force, such as the flash boiling
atomization, effervescent atomization, ultrasonic atomization, and electrostatic atomization. Despite how the sheet is
produced, its instability is increased by the surrounding aerodynamic disturbances, causing it to spread out from the
nozzle with a decrease in its thickness and perforations that take place and develop toward each other creating
threads and ligaments as shown in Figure. The collapse of these ligaments with each other leads to the formation of
variable size droplets. This initial collapse of the spray into threads and ligaments, and then into droplets is called
primary break-up. The size of the resulting droplets ranges from few microns to hundreds of microns [18], and is
determined by the liquid sheet initial thickness, velocity gradient between the liquid and the surrounding gas, and
liquid physical properties (mainly viscosity and surface tension). These droplets may undergo a subsequent break-up
due to the aerodynamic forces resulted by the velocity gradient between the droplets and environment. This
subsequent break-up is called secondary atomization

2. General Description of Evaporation Phenomena

Thence, it is found that droplet size variation has an effect on both spray and engine performance characteristics.
Spray tip penetration distance and velocity are found to increase with increasing droplet size due to the longer
evaporation time required. Flame shape is affected by droplet size as well. Large droplets usually burn in a diffusion
flame around the liquid phase, while a premixed gas flame appearance is noticed in the combustion of very small
droplets, due to the complete evaporation of these droplets upstream of the flame front. Furthermore, NOx
formation is found to decrease by decreasing droplet size in the spray due to enhanced evaporation and the
domination of premixed combustion mode compared to the diffusion combustion mode of the large size droplets .
Accordingly, it can be deduced how prominent are the droplet characteristics in defining the fuel spray and engine
performance characteristics. Hence, a comprehensive understanding of the single constituent of the spray would be
helpful for explaining the more general spray structure. This is due to the fact that the fuel spray is an integral of a
large number of small size droplets. Therefore, the previously set scope of the work on liquid fuel combustion is
further converged to single fuel droplet combustion.

2.1. Phenomena Involved in Injection, Evaporation and Combustion

In the combustion chambers of an internal combustion engine, fuel is injected in the form of a mist of liquid drops as
fine as possible. During the injection of this liquid fuel, several phenomena take place: disintegration of the liquid,
atomization, turbulent dispersion, etc. During this stage, which precedes combustion, heat and mass transfers
between the drops and their gaseous environment come into play. The phenomena are extremely numerous and
varied, making the study of the whole very complex. Simple experiments are then defined to isolate each of the
above-mentioned phenomena in order to model them. The numerical simulation of dense two-phase flows in an
internal combustion chamber of a diesel engine must take into account the modelling of several rather complex
physical processes.

Among these phenomena, the modelling of drop evaporation allows to quantify the amount of fuel vapor supplied to
the gas phase in order to simulate the spray combustion. In order to keep calculation times reasonable, the fuel is
always represented by a liquid composed of a single species (heptane, n-octane, n-decane for paraffin or iso-octane
for petrol). However, these fuels are actually composed of several hundred components, all with different
physicochemical characteristics. One of the most important properties is volatility, which varies considerably from
one species to another, and the different components of a fuel can thus cover a wide range of boiling temperatures,
above a hundred degrees. This affects the dynamics of evaporation as some species vaporize faster than others. The
composition of the drop changes throughout its trajectory in the combustion chamber where the vapour is not
uniform. The different species react differently and combustion phenomena such as ignition, flame propagation,
flame stability or pollutant emissions can be affected.

2.2. Drop Evaporation in a Stagnant Medium

The evaporation of a drop of fuel remains one of the most important processes of combustion in a diesel engine
combustion chamber. It depends on the temperature of the drop and the temperature of the vapour phase as well as
on the vapour pressure. Consider a single-component, isolated and immobile drop initially placed in a gaseous
medium. At the initial moment, the temperature at the surface of the liquid (T S) is lower than the temperature of the
surrounding medium, the vapour pressure at its surface is lower than the pressure of the gaseous phase. Two
phenomena occur:

• A quantity of heat is transferred by conduction-convection from the surrounding

medium to the surface of the drop causing an increase in the temperature of the
drop and the vapour concentration at its surface,
• Vapour concentration gradients between the surface of the drop and the
surrounding medium cause evaporation of the liquid phase by particle diffusion.

If the temperature of the drop increases in the course of time, the evaporation process of the drop continues until it
reaches self-ignition. Figure illustrates the phenomena of drop evaporation.

Figure 1. Physical phenomenon of a droplet evaporation in a stagnant medium

3. Evaporation Mechanisms

The mechanisms of evaporation of a drop are:

 • Heat transfers: related to temperature gradients,
• Quantity of movements transferred: induced by the gas flow and materializing in the
form of a boundary layer,
• Mass transferred: caused by the concentration gradient through evaporation. Both
diffusive and convective.

To understand the mechanisms of jet evaporation, it is essential to decouple the problem. On the one hand, there
are heat exchange mechanisms that directly participate in the evaporation of the drop and on the other hand, there
are dynamic effects (atomization) that indirectly participate in this atomization.

The formation of a large number of droplets by atomization increases the exchange surface of the droplets, which
promotes heat transfer and thus evaporation.

The consideration of convection in the evaporation of a drop is very important because the viscous friction generated
by the relative movement of the drop causes a decrease in the mass fraction of vapour at its surface. Convection
avoids the phenomenon of vapour accumulation and on the other hand it accelerates the evaporation of the drop
and decreases its life span. The coupling of these different types of transfers is shown by their dependence on
common physical quantities linked to the properties of the different media, thermodynamic variables and the
thermophysical properties of the fuel.

4. Influence of Different Parameters on the Vaporization of Drops

4.1. Influence of Convection

The influence of convection on the evaporation of a drop has been the subject of numerous works. These authors
describe the influence of the speed of the vapour phase flow around the drop during evaporation. It is also shown
that the flow can modify the duration of vaporization. There is little work on the evaporation of one or more
spherical drops in natural convection. For both conditions with and without combustion reaction, the droplet lifetime
increases with the combustion reaction, with the increase of ambient pressure at a low initial gas temperature of
1000 K, but decreases at the high initial temperatures of 1500 K and 2000 K, although the droplet lifetime is shorter
due to the combustion reaction. Also, it is noted that the increase in ambient pressure and the inhomogeneity of the
droplet distribution due to turbulence cause the droplet lifetime to be generally shorter. The main results obtained
show that: -

1) Natural convection accelerates droplet evaporation, and the effect becomes noticeable with
increasing ambient temperature.
2) In the condition without combustion reaction, the droplet lifetime increases with increasing
ambient pressure at low initial gas temperature of 1000 K, but decreases at higher initial
temperature. This is attributed to an equilibrium between increasing and decreasing
droplets. Indeed, as the ambient pressure increases, droplet evaporation is suppressed by a
higher boiling temperature, while it is favoured by a lower latent and a larger droplet surface
area due to a larger liquid expansion.
3) The effects of ambient pressure, initial gas temperature and ML on droplet lifetime in the
combustion reaction condition are similar to those in the no combustion reaction condition.
However, the droplet lifetime is often shortened by an improved combustion reaction in the
following conditions of high ambient pressure and moderately high ML.
4) Both for the conditions with and without combustion reaction, the inhomogeneity of droplet
distribution caused by turbulence makes the droplet lifetime longer because the local ML
increases considerably at some locations.

A new drop evaporation model taking into account the buoyancy effect of natural convection was also proposed. The
results show that: -

1) The evaporation characteristics of liquid fuel generally correspond to the d2 law and the
evaporation rate increases with increasing ambient temperature.
2) Calculations of the Ranz-Marshall evaporation model and other models that do not consider
natural convection deviate significantly from experimental results.
 3) The computational results of the new droplet evaporation model are consistent with the
experimental data for room temperature.
4) The new droplet evaporation model that takes into account natural convection can predict
droplet evaporation more accurately than conventional models, such as the boiling
evaporation model of Ranz and Marshall. Marshall boiling evaporation model.

Droplet Combustion
Studies of spray combustion are categorized into two major trends: the first is based on analysing the real
combustion process, starting from single fuel droplet combustion or an idealized spray, while in the second trend;
direct observations of spray combustion are made to investigate the different accompanying phenomena such as
flame length, radiation, flame oscillation and stability. Moreover, spray combustion could be studied theoretically
using the information from a single fuel droplet in the turbulent gas diffusion combustion. Therefore, droplet
combustion investigation is essential for understanding spray combustion, since the spray prior to combustion turns
into an integral of a large number of fine droplets. First of all, it is important to differentiate between the different
forms of droplet combustion. In fact, there are two forms of droplet combustion; the first is the monopropellant
droplet combustion, where the fuel and oxidizer exist in a single substance, as it is seen in the combustion of
hydrazine by nitromethane. This form of droplet combustion has been the subject of a variety of research work, both
experimental, and theoretical. The second form is the bipropellant droplet combustion, which is by far more
employed in practical applications that involve fuel droplet combustion in a surrounding oxidizing medium (usually
air). The fuel vapour and oxidizer consume each other in the flame zone in a stoichiometric reaction. The heat
generated by the reaction conducts inward towards the droplet and outward towards the environment. The heat
portion conducted towards the droplet will provide the required energy for persisting droplet evaporation and
maintaining combustion until full consumption of the fuel droplet.

Droplet combustion investigation has not been limited to studying the combustion of isolated single-component fuel
droplets. Instead, interacting droplet clusters and streams has also been investigated, in addition to the
implementation of multicomponent fuels and fuel mixtures on an extensive number of droplet combustion studies.
Despite the importance of the isolated, single-component fuel droplet combustion model in understanding the
overall droplet combustion process and proving the classical theory of droplet combustion, but, the multicomponent
fuel droplet and interacting multi-droplet combustion models are more realistic compared to the aforementioned
model. Since, the majority of liquid fuels utilized in combustion applications are in fact mixtures of different
components rather than a single component, and are burning in the form of sprays of a large number of droplets that
are interacting together within the boundaries of the spray. Accordingly, further exploration of these two categories
is believed to be helpful.

Multicomponent Fuel Droplet Combustion ( BURNING OF HEAVY FUEL OIL )

A large portion of fuels are utilized in the form of

multicomponent fuels or fuel mixtures. These fuels are
either initially produced in the multicomponent form
(such as the diesel fuel), or prepared as
multicomponent fuel mixtures prior to usage. These
mixtures are either taking the form of blends (such as
diesel and gasoline blending with alcohol), emulsions
(as in the water-in-oil emulsions), or slurries. Three
main purposes are behind the use of fuel mixtures in
combustion: the first is increasing the performance of
the combustion system by the addition of higher
heating value fuels. The second is reducing the harmful
environmental impact of the conventional fuels. And
the third is the depletion of the conventional liquid fuel
resource. alcohols and biofuels are the most utilized
fuels with the conventional liquid fuels in combustion
applications, because of their evidenced soot and NOx reduction effects and relatively comparable combustion
efficiency as those of the conventional liquid fuels.

In the multicomponent fuel mixtures, no chemical reaction will occur between the fuel constituents, and each
constituent sustains its own physical and chemical properties. Therefore, the combustion of the resulting mixture is
more complicated than the pure fuel combustion, because different components are burning simultaneously at the
same point and instant of time. Hence, unlike the single component fuel droplet combustion – in which droplet
evaporation is the rate controlling process – the multicomponent fuel droplet combustion encompasses the effect of
droplet interior heat and mass transfer.

As a result, the multicomponent fuel droplet combustion is much more complicated compared to the single-
component fuel droplet combustion. Firstly, the different constituents of the multicomponent fuel have different
boiling points and different evaporation rates that leads to creating concentration gradients inside the droplet (in the
liquid phase). Secondly, due to the boiling point gradient, a difference in volatility tendency is expected. Hence, the
more volatile components tend to evaporate first until their concentrations are reduced, changing the concentration
gradient inside the droplet. Lastly, the evaporation of the more volatile components reduces their concentrations but
does not consume them completely. Thus, the remaining quantities of the highly volatile components tend to diffuse
to the droplet surface due to their tendency of evaporation, and the less volatile components will tend to diffuse
inward. This in turn, will create an internal circulation in the liquid phase, and will affect the evaporation rate of the
droplet because of concentration difference on its surface along its lifetime. Therefore, the main parameters that are
affecting droplet combustion of the multicomponent fuels are:

(ii) the volatility and relative concentration of each of the constituents of the multicomponent fuel,
(iii) the miscibility of these constituents, and
(iv) the relative motion inside the droplet.

The evaporation characteristics of water/n-decane emulsion droplets at various temperatures and pressures were
observed experimentally. The emulsion fuel was made by adding pure water to the n-decane base fuel with a volume
ratio of 0.2:0.2. The time variation of the droplet diameter was observed optically with a high-speed camera. The
evaporation process of the emulsion droplets was divided into three stages, namely drop heating, swelling/blowing
and pure evaporation. As the ambient temperature increased, the droplet swelling behaviour shifted towards
swelling during the swelling/blowing phase. There was a decrease in the inflation/blowing rate under high pressure
conditions. The evaporation rate during the pure evaporation stage and the overall droplet lifetime were affected by
ambient temperature but not by ambient pressure. Droplet swelling occurred mainly at relatively low temperature
and pressure conditions; it transformed into blowing at higher temperature and pressure conditions. A new study of
the evaporation of multicomponent hydrocarbon liquid droplets in rotating forced convection. For this purpose, they
numerically investigated the heat and mass transfer of evaporation of ternary-component liquid hydrocarbon
droplets in rotary forced convection. Optimal values for the wind and rotation velocities of the liquid droplet were
determined.

Each of these parameters has its direct effect on the resulting combustion behaviour of the multicomponent fuel. The
volatility and concentration gradient of the constituents paly an essential rule in the circulation inside the droplet.
The phase change characteristics within the liquid-phase of the droplet are controlled by the miscibility of these
constituents on each other. Whereas, the relative motion inside the droplet will enhance evaporation on the droplet
surface by assisting outward flow of the volatile components inside the droplet. Accordingly, droplet combustion of
the multicomponent fuels has been – and is being – investigated extensively both theoretically and experimentally
for better understanding of the physical and chemical processes associated with this form of droplet combustion.
Besides, different physical processes which are associated with the combustion of multicomponent fuel droplets have
been the scope of a large portion of studies, such as the puffing and micro-explosion leading to droplet secondary
atomization. These processes are initiating and occurring in the liquid-phase of the fuel droplet either in the surface
or deep within the droplet internals, and are directly affecting the overall droplet combustion behaviour.

Droplet Puffing, Secondary Atomization, and Microexplosion

Droplet microexplosion is defined as the prompt fragmentation of the multicomponent droplet as a result of
nucleation and explosive boiling of the less boiling point component(s). If this fragmentation is less intensive and
limited to part of the droplet, it is usually called as puffing. Though gave a more specific definition for droplet puffing,
that is the process of vapour jet liberation form the surface of the multicomponent fuel droplet. This vapour jet is
usually filled with finely small sub-droplets of the dispersed phase. The continuous phase may also detaches from the
droplet surface in the form of ligaments or small size droplets as a consequence of an intensive puffing incident. This
detachment of ligaments and small droplets is called secondary atomization. Therefore, the secondary atomization is
defined as the processes of droplet disintegration into smaller size droplets. This disintegration results when the
dynamic forces acting on the droplet are higher than the restoration force of the droplet, Puffing and microexplosion
are direct results of the nucleation and bubble generation within the multicomponent fuel droplets.

The study of the disruptive burning of and the puffing and microexplosion occurrence during the droplet combustion
of diesel/ethanol, diesel/biodiesel, and ethanol/biodiesel blends, in addition to a diesel-biodiesel-ethanol micro-
emulsion and the ethanol/n-paraffin and n-propanol/n-paraffin binary solutions under atmospheric pressure. They
found that droplet disruption results from the homogeneous bubble nucleation, expansion, and explosion inside the
droplet and the puffing intensity is a function of the size and depth of the bursting bubble.

They have used shadowgraph imaging for tracking the secondary

atomization occurrence from an evaporating water-in-n-decane
emulsion spray and found the same puffing behaviour for the single
droplet of 1 mm diameter and the spray of 50 µm average droplet
size droplet complete microexplosion occurs in a time interval less
than 200 µs , the total combustion time (in ms) inside a 4-stroke
engine can be evaluated as a function of the rotational speed
according to equation.

The evaluated combustion time values for a

range of engine rotation speeds are listed in
Table: -

These time values are sufficiently enough for

the real spray droplets to undergo heating,
phase separation, and complete
microexplosion, even at low possibilities. the effects of these processes on the combustion efficiency by enhancing
fuel evaporation and fuel/air mixing are well addressed. Additionally, the effect of nucleation and bubble growth in
the droplet liquid-phase on the initiation and development of these processes is also established.

Nucleation and Bubble Generation

Nucleation is defined as the appearance of the first forms of the new phase when a thermodynamic system
undergoes phase change. It is shown in the formation of bubbles in a boiling liquid, and ice crystals in the
solidification of water. For boiling liquids, nucleation takes place due to the metastability of the liquid compared to its
vapour. Liquid metastability results either from liquid superheating above its boiling point or expansion below the
saturated pressure (the so-called cavitation). Hence, the nucleation occurs due to the tendency of the liquid to
retrieve equilibrium. This form of nucleation arises within the bulk of the liquid and is known as the Homogeneous
Nucleation. If the nucleation takes place at the liquid interface regions rather than the bulk, it is termed as the
Heterogeneous Nucleation.

Despite its type and occurrence location, the most important parameter in nucleation is the nucleation limit – also
known as the superheat limit – of the liquid. The nucleation limit in boiling is defined as the maximum temperature
before the critical point at which the liquid maintains its phase without experiencing any phase change. The energy
released from the vaporizing liquid at the nucleation limit is sometimes sufficient to create the so-called vapour
explosion. This explosion takes place as a result of either the thermal detonation waves resulting from energy release
or due to the excessive bubble growth rate compared to the liquid response.
Hence, in the case of multicomponent fuel droplet combustion, the interior
of the droplet is heated by convection and radiation from the surrounding
flame and hot gases. Due to boiling point difference between the different
components of the multicomponent fuel, the lower boiling point
components become superheated. When the droplet temperature
approaches the nucleation limit of that component, bubble nucleation takes
place within the droplet liquid-phase leading to vapour bubble formation.
These bubbles move towards the droplet surface due to the density
difference, and then burst outside the droplet by pressure difference across
the bubble. Bubble nucleation occurrence inside the multicomponent fuel
droplets is important since it leads to enhancing liquid fuel evaporation and
fuel air mixing, and in turn improving the combustion efficiency.

Heterogeneous nucleation occurrence as a result of trapped air bubbles inside the collision-merging
methanol/alkane droplets. These air bubbles serve as nucleation sites inside the droplet. Bubble burst at the droplet
surface has also been described, and the effect of initial locations of the boiling bubble and the dispersed phase sub-
droplet on the bubble burst intensity has also been evaluated.