Fundamental Study of Alcohol Sprays

Nowadays, the transportation industries are still growing although sources of
petroleum fuels are depleting. Thus, to meet the demand for fuels, alternative fuels
such as alcohol fuel and bio fuel could be used. Many countries such as Brazil,
United States and Germany have started using alcohol based fuels for transportation
instead of petroleum fuels. Spray concept is applied in the combustion chamber.
However, the characteristics of alcohol sprays are not well understood. Thus, there is
a need to develop a fundamental study on alcohols spray. The objective of the project
is to study the characteristics of different types of alcohol sprays in relation to
combustion. The study will focus on two major components. Firstly, the study will
focus on microscopic characteristics such as droplet size and mean velocity. To
determine the microscopic characteristics, Laser Doppler Anemometry (LDA) and
Phase Doppler Anemometry (PDA) shall be used. LDA is used to measure mean
velocity while PDA is used to measure the size of fuel droplets. The second
component is on the observation of the structure of alcohol sprays at the nozzle exit.
The observation shall be done using a high speed camera. All the results are analyzed
to further understand on the characteristics of alcohol sprays.