Evaporation of Multicomponent Droplets

Abstract

ABSTRACT The evaporation of multicomponent drops having diameters on the order 10 /am was investigated using electrodynamic levitation and light-scattering measurements. Multicomponent drops representative of diesel fuels and binary drops were studied. The binary system consisted of the halogenated compounds 1-iododocane and 1-bromotetradecane, and the model fuel drops were composed of hexadecane, 1-methyl naphthalene, and cis- and trans-decahydronaphthalene (decalin). The effect of an additive, tertiary butyl peroxide, on the evaporation of the multicomponent system was explored, and some data are reported for the additive ethyl hexyl nitrate. The additives were found to have negligible effect on the evaporation rate. The measured evaporation rates are compared with a theoretical analysis based upon diffusion-controlled evaporation using the UNIFAC (Reid et al., 1987) model for liquid phase activity coefficients. The model was found to be in good agreement with experiment.