Interactive vaporization and combustion of binary droplet systems

The interactive vaporization and combustion of two horizontally-aligned droplets were experimentally studied using an automated data acquisition and reduction system. Factors investigated include the droplet spacing and size, ambient oxygen concentration, fuel type, droplets of dissimilar fuels, intensity of buoyancy, and pure vaporization. Results show that much of the burning results can be interpreted on the basis of the flame size and oxygen competition, that the existing theory over-predicts the intensity and persistency of interaction, that the gasification rate correction factor depends on the initial as well as the aerothermochemical parameters of the system in addition to the scaled instantaneous droplet separation distance, which is the only (geometrical) parameter present in the theory, that interactive buoyant convection can substantially augment the droplet gasification rate to exceed the isolated value, and that mass exchange between droplets of different volatilities can be quite significant. It is further suggested that interactive effects can be considered to be shorrranged for the droplet gasification rate but long-ranged for the mergedness of the flame.