Experiment on evaporation characteristics of diesel, n-butanol and their blends droplets

To investigate the evaporation characteristics of diesel with n-butanol blending, the evaporation characteristics of n-butanol, diesel and their blends were studied experimentally through droplet suspension technique and photographic technique at different ambient temperatures. Experimental results show that, compared with the classical two-stage evaporation of diesel, the transient heating phase is shorter. n-Butanol always evaporates faster than diesel, and the droplet evaporation rate between n-butanol and diesel is decreased with the increase of ambient temperature. n-Butanol-diesel blends evaporates faster than diesel, and the behavior of n-butanol blend mainly affects the early stage of droplet evaporation process. Moreover, evaporation characteristics of n-butanol-diesel blends are distinct at high temperature. Their evaporation process exhibits the phenomenon of bubble formation, expansion and puffing, which lead to the significant variations in droplet diameter. This strong response is caused by the largely different volatilities of n-butanol-diesel blends components.