A COMPARATIVE-STUDY ON THE COMBUSTION CHARACTERISTICS OF BURNING DROPLETS OF MARINE FUEL OILS

An experimental study conducted on a single oil droplet suspended on a quartz filament is carried out to investigate the effects of droplet size and heating time on the combustion characteristics of marine fuel oils. Fuel oils A and C, which approximate ASTM Nos. 2 and 6 fuel oils, respectively, are considered in this study primarily due to their frequent applications in marine power plants. The properties of these fuels are widely different; marine diesel fuel oil A is a distillate oil of miscible multi-components while heavy fuel oil C is known as a residual oil containing considerable amounts of immiscible matter. The combustion phenomena are observed by cinematography. The results show that the influences of droplet size and heating time on the combustion characteristics of flame length, flame appearance, soot, ignition delay, and overall burning rate vary for these two fuel oils to a significant extent. The reasons for these variations are discussed.