An Experimental Study on the Phenomena inside the Burning Aviation Kerosene Droplet

This paper conducted an experimental study of droplet behavior characteristics occurring within a burning aviation kerosene droplet and on the droplet interface. The droplet combustion was performed in a quiescent high-temperature environment by means of the droplet suspension technique. The soot particles were used as tracers to visualize the fluid motion in the droplet. The shape variation of droplet, internal flow pattern in the burning droplet, and instabilities at gas-liquid phase interface were recorded by a high speed camera. The internal fluid flow in the droplet was revealed to be caused by the Marangoni effect, which was generated because of the surface tension gradient induced by the temperature gradient on the droplet surface. The studies showed that the Marangoni effect has a significant impact on the internal flow. The amplitude of the capillary waves on the surface of the droplet was non-uniform and presented the amplitude characteristics of large-small-some. The wavelength of the capillary waves for burning aviation kerosene droplet ranged from 110 µm to 120 µm.