An experimental facility has been developed to study the effects of tu
rbulence on droplet vaporization. The facility allows to generate a ze
ro mean velocity, isotropic and homogeneous turbulence and to vary sys
tematically the turbulence kinetic energy. The influence of turbulence
on suspended single droplets of five n-alkane hydrocarbons is investi
gated, by determining the average vaporization rates by image analysis
techniques. The experiments have been conducted under normal pressure
and temperature conditions; for all cases, the length scales of energ
etic turbulence eddies are larger than the initial droplet diameter. F
or all the investigated cases, it is found that the presence of turbul
ent velocity fluctuations increases the average vaporization rates com
pared to the stagnant case. The linear regression rate of the projecte
d droplet surface area versus time is observed under all turbulence co
nditions. It is observed that droplets of the five investigated fuels
respond differently to the same turbulence structure. A given turbulen
t kinetic energy enhances more strongly the average vaporization rates
-of lowest volatility fuels. Also, for each fuel, the normalized vapor
ization rate tends towards a plateau behavior for increasing turbulenc
e kinetic energy. The experimental information collected in this study
has been used to suggest a phenomenological model For the turbulence
effects on monocomponent droplet vaporization. The model explains this
effect in terms of the ratio between a turbulence diffusivity and the
molecular diffusivity of the fuel vapor.