Experimental and numerical investigations on spray characteristics of fatty acid methyl esters

The comparative experimental and numerical study is conducted to establish the significance of the use of single component over the multi-component representative of the biodiesel, diesel and their blend for predicting the spray tip penetration. The single component representatives of biodiesel, methyl oleate and methyl laurate and for the diesel are n-heptane, n-dodecane and n-tetradecane are studied. The methyl laurate is found to represent biodiesel of coconut, whereas methyl oleate is found to represent biodiesel having high percentage of long-chain fatty acid esters. The spray tip penetration of methyl oleate is found to be in good agreement with the measured spray tip penetration of karanja biodiesel. The spray tip penetration prediction of n-heptane fuel is closely following diesel spray tip penetration along with that of n-tetradecane and n-dodecane. The study suggests that the knowledge of the single component representative of biodiesel, diesel and their blend is sufficient t...