Experimental investigation on supercritical evaporation of RP-3 aviation kerosene droplet

For current investigations related with aero-engines, there are few researches available on the supercritical evaporation of liquid hydrocarbon fuel. With the increasing requirements of high performance for aero-engines being considered, evaporation of the RP-3 aviation kerosene droplets under sub- and super-critical environment was experimentally investigated. Firstly, the variations of the square of non-dimensional diameters were explored in detail under different ambient temperature and pressure with time during the evaporation process. Comparisons of typical sub- and super-critical evaporation conditions were also made and analyzed with the purpose of studying distinction between two different evaporation conditions. Then, the curve of droplet evaporation lifetime varied with environmental parameters was plotted according to the experimental results. It is found that the influence of environmental pressure on droplet evaporation lifetime is completely distrinct in the various temperature ranges and the unsteadiness in the evaporation process gets greater with the increasing of ambient pressure and temperature simultaneously. Finally, quantitative calculation of droplet evaporation constant under different conditions were accomplished. The results show that ambient temperature and pressure are the two major factors which have a significant impact on droplet evaporation constant, and the ambient temperature plays an important role.