LAMINAR COUNTERFLOW SPRAY DIFFUSION FLAMES - A COMPARISON BETWEEN EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND COMPLEX CHEMISTRY CALCULATIONS

Experimental and numerical studies of laminar flames formed by the cou nterflow of a monodisperse fuel spray with an air stream are reported in this article. In this simple configuration it is possible to analyz e the influence of the phase transfer terms on the flame structure. Th e experimental setup used to produce such laminar spray diffusion flam es is first described. A set of experiments are carried with liquid he ptane fuel sprays. The flame is characterized with a laser sheet imagi ng system and with a particle sizing apparatus based on laser light di ffraction. Results of a numerical study are then presented. The two ph ase-reacting flow equations are solved through Newton iterations and a daptative gridding using detailed transport and complex chemistry. An iterative procedure is devised to solve the gas- and liquid-phase bala nce equations. Comparison between experimental and numerical values of the diameter are found to be in good agreement.