Modeling influence of alcohol moiety and chain length on pure fatty acid ester spray

Abstract

In the present study, pure component spray of methyl and ethyl esters of butyric, palmitic and oleic acids are studied using sprayFoam solver in OpenFOAM CFD code. The effect of alcohol moiety and fatty acid chain length on spray characteristics is studied at non-reacting evaporating condition. The thermo-physical properties of pure component esters are obtained from National Standard Reference Data System (NSRDS), Design Institute for Physical Properties (DIPPR) project 801. The liquid penetration length of methyl esters is lower than that of ethyl esters for all fatty acid chain lengths. The liquid tip penetration length increases with increase in fatty acid chain length. The fatty acid chain length has higher influence on liquid length than that of alcohol moiety. This work is an attempt to identify suitability of biodiesel with medium chain length Fatty Acid Ethyl Esters (FAEE), via analyzing relation between there liquid length penetration and properties. © 2015 International Conference on Liquid Atomization and Spray Systems. All rights reserved.