A new correlation for turbulent mass transfer from liquid droplets

This paper presents a new correlation for mass transfer from single liquid droplets into a turbulent environment. Experiments were carried out under a mbient room temperature and pressure. Homogeneous isotropic turbulence with zero-mean velocity was generated by eight identical electrical fans placed on the eight corners of a cubic chamber. The LDV technique was used to cha racterize the turbulence inside the chamber. The vaporization of fiber susp ended droplets of five different n-alkanes and the bi-component droplet of n-heptane and n-decane mixtures subjected to varying turbulent kinetic ener gy is investigated by imaging techniques. For mono-component droplets the d (2)-law holds for all fuels and turbulent kinetic energies, and the vaporiz ation rates increase with increasing the turbulent kinetic energy. Bi-compo nent droplets exhibit a sequential vaporization behavior for all mixtures a nd turbulent kinetic energies. The instantaneous vaporization rates increas e with increasing turbulence kinetic energy and increasing volume fraction of the highest volatility component. The proposed correlation predicts the vaporization rates of mono and bicomponent n-alkane droplets subjected to i sotropic turbulence with zero-mean velocity. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.