Burning of two arbitrary sized n-heptane droplets suspended in a grid generated turbulent jet flow field

Burning of two n-heptane droplets placed side-by-side in a convective flow having significant turbulence fluctuations is studied using suspended droplet technique. The centers of the suspenders are aligned in this configuration. Burning of similar droplets under normal gravity without forced convection is also studied. The turbulence in the jet flow field is introduced using grids. The droplet separation distance has been maintained constant, but the initial droplet sizes are varied. The burning rates have been estimated from the droplet regression curves. The burning rates of the binary droplet have been compared with the burning rates of a single droplet with a similar initial diameter. In this configuration, for the separation distance considered, the burning rate of the larger droplet has been found to be always lesser than that of the small droplet. Direct flame photographs reveal that for side-by-side burning of two droplets in a natural convective environment, the flame always merges. But in the turbulence flow field, merging of flames is intermittent.