On the Non-Steady State Nature of Droplet Combustion

Abstract

Experimental results on the combustion of single droplets show that d²- law of burning is valid, but the flame to drop diameter ratio, d_f/d, changes during combustion. Experiments carried out by the authors on the combustion of monosized droplet streams show the same trends in the results of the burning rates and of d_f/d ratios, indicating the transient nature of the process. While the steady state model of droplet combustion is useful for predictions of burning rates to be made with good approximation, the transient nature of the process ought to be taken into account in more generalized theoretical analysis for the successful predictions of flame structure.