An Experimental Study on the Atomization and Combustion Characteristics of Biodiesel-Blended Fuels

In this paper we describe the atomization and combustion characteristics of biodiesel fuels in a common-rail diesel engine. To investigate the effect of the mixing ratio of biodiesels on the emission characteristics and engine performance, the experiments were conducted at various mixing ratios of the biodiesel and engine operation conditions. In addition, the physical properties such as kinematic viscosity and cetane number of the biodiesel-blended fuel were analyzed to study relations with the fuel atomization and combustion characteristics. The atomization characteristics of biodiesel-blended fuels were investigated in terms of spray tip penetration, SMD, and mean velocity distributions by using a spray visualization system and phase Doppler particle analyzer. The effect of the mixing ratio on the combustion characteristics was studied on the basis of the results of the combustion pressure obtained from the single-cylinder engine at various experimental conditions. The emission characteristics of HC, N...