Numerical Simulation of a Conical Flame of a Gas–Droplet Suspension of Ethanol in Air: Comparison with Gas Mixture Combustion

The increase in the burning velocity of a laminar fuel-rich ethanol flame due to droplet injection was investigated numerically, and the results were compared with calculations for ethanol combustion without injection at the same fuel mass flow rate. The calculations show that the presence of a dispersed phase in the form of 14 $$\mu $$ m droplets with a mass flow rate of 0.5 g/min and a gas flow rate of 1.6 g/min significantly increases the flame propagation velocity compared to the combustion of gaseous ethanol with a flow rate of 2.1 g/min. The laminar flame speed increases from 23 cm/s in the combustion of the purely gaseous fuel to 42 cm/s in the combustion with droplet injection. This effect correlates with a more than threefold increase in atomic hydrogen concentration in the flame and with a twofold increase in HCO concentration.