An experimental investigation into ignition and combustion of groups of slurry fuel droplets containing high concentrations of water

In this study, the main ignition and combustion characteristics have been compared for droplet groups of a coal-water slurry containing petrochemicals (CWSP), as well as oil, surrounded by water droplets. Thus, in a combustion chamber, we simulated the ignition and combustion conditions of a heterogeneous fuel aerosol that can be formed when jets of different liquids cross or when multi-component flows delaminate. It was shown that a decrease in the distance between droplets (from 10 mm to 2 mm, i.e. to the typical fuel droplet size) reduces the gas-phase and heterogeneous ignition delay times of oil and CWSP by 30% on average. The evaporation times of water droplets decrease by approximately 25%, if the distance between them increases in the combustion chamber. It was established that the ignition delay times of oil and coal-water slurry containing petrochemicals increased by 20–40% and 40–70%, respectively, when a combustible liquid droplet was in the center with six water droplets around it. The experimental results are a database for the development of efficient technologies of injecting multi-component fuel into combustion chambers.