Direct numerical simulation of an atomizing biodiesel jet: Impact of fuel properties on atomization characteristics

Abstract

[EN] The utilization of biodiesel is an effective approach to reduce pollution from internal combustion engines and thus has attracted steadily increasing interest in the recent years. As the viscosity of biodiesel is much higher than that of standard diesel, the atomization characteristics of a biodiesel jet can significantly deviate from those of a standard diesel jet under identical injection conditions. Since atomization of the injected fuel has a strong impact on fuel-air mixing and the following combustion processes, it is important to investigate the atomization of biodiesel and in particular to understand how the fuel properties affect the atomization process and the resulting spray characteristics. In the present study, three-dimensional direct numerical simulations are conducted to investigate atomizing biodiesel and diesel jets. The novel adaptive multiphase solver Basilisk is used for simulations. The statistics of droplets formed in the biodiesel jet is compared to the diesel jet under identical injection conditions.