Ignition experiment of a fuel droplet in high-pressure high-temperature ambient

In order to obtain the ignition behavior at supercritical pressures, ignition times of a single fuel dropletwere measured in high-pressure high-temperature ambient. A suspended droplet of n-hexadecane or n-heptane with a diameter of 0.35-1.4 mm was quickly immersed in an electric furnace with a temperature up to 950 K. Attachment of the droplet, movement of the furnace, and ignition measurement were carried out in an air vessel with pressures up to 3 MPa. At low pressures, ignition times of both fuels decreased with the initial droplet diameter and thenincreased. Therefore, the ignition time variation with the initial droplet diameter has a minimum. This phenomenon, however, disappeared at high pressures. Also, the ignitable limit of droplet diameter, below which the droplet vaporized completely before ignition, decreased as pressure increased. In the case of a droplet burning at high pressures, the preceding experiment showed that the burning rate constant increased and had a maximum around the critical pressure of fuel. This is significantly caused by variable properties around the critical point such as thermal conductivity and diffusion coefficient; and therefore, the present ignition time was expected to show similar characteristics due to the same reason. Ignition time, however, decreased monotonously with pressure, and even at supercritical pressures, the ignition time behavior did not change much. Being different from the case of combustion, it is suggested that drastic changes of properties did not take place in ignition processes.