Phenomena Associated with Combustion of Electrostatically Charged Drops

The use of an electric charge to facilitate the dispersion of a liquid inside a gaseous fluid (electrospray) is an used practice in different fields (mass spectrometry, spray painting, pesticide dispersion, drug delivery through aerosol), and potentially very interesting for the spray combustion. Many are the works in the literature, dealing with the effect of an electric field, applied in different manners, on combustion. However, at the best of our knowledge, there are no detailed studies about phenomena taking place when a single fuel droplet burns after being electrically excited through electric induction. The objective of this work is to investigate these phenomena through high-speed imaging technique, in order to provide a better understanding, at least qualitative, to the combustion analysis of a spray of electrically charged droplets. It will be shown that a precise and repetitive sequence of phenomena takes place when an isooctane droplet burns after an electric potential is applied. In particular it will be shown that the secondary atomization process occurs even in a combustion environment. Moreover, a quantitative analysis of the influence of the electric field on the morphology of the reaction zone has been performed, showing that appropriate configuration of the ground electrode can be useful to enhance fuel air mixing.