Publication: Study of droplet regimes and behaviors of selected biofuels upon impaction on metal surfaces
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Date
2023-07-09
Authors
Charles Adrick Anak Lawrence Belong
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Abstract
The fundamental dynamics of biofuel droplets upon impact with a surface are of significant interest. The various impact regimes, including spreading, splashing, bouncing, and rebounding, are widely studied in diverse fields such as physics, chemistry, and biology. However, the presence of larger and heavier biofuel droplets can greatly affect and complicate processes such as vaporization, impaction, and aerodynamics. The understanding of these processes in relation to the physical properties of biofuel droplets is limited due to the scarcity of information in existing literature. Therefore, this project aims to investigate and characterize distinct droplet regimes across different ranges of impact height, varying the metal surfaces. In this project, an approach was adopted using a droplet generator and high-speed tracking camera to study the droplet regimes. The experimental setup involved generating droplets of selected biofuels and releasing them onto metal surfaces at different heights. The droplets were produced by the droplet generator, which ensured consistent size and velocity. To analyze the droplet regimes, the Weber number (We) was utilized. The Weber number, which relates the inertia of the droplet to the surface tension, is commonly used to determine the droplet regime. It is calculated as the ratio of the droplet's kinetic energy to the surface tension force. The high-speed tracking camera was employed to capture the droplet impaction process at a high frame rate, allowing for detailed analysis of the droplet dynamics. The recorded images were subsequently analyzed to extract relevant parameters such as droplet spreading, rebound, and breakup, which were then correlated with the corresponding Weber numbers. The experimental results provided insights into the different droplet regimes and behaviors exhibited by the selected biofuels upon impaction on varied metal surfaces with varied heights which shows the higher the heights, the maximum spreading diameter increases, and the droplet recedes significantly. These findings contribute to the understanding of droplet characteristics when dropped from different height in real-world scenarios and can inform the optimization of industrial processes involving biofuel impaction on different metal surfaces.