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Electrostatically assisted injection and combustion
Dimitrios C. Kyritsis, Dept. of Mechanical Science and Engineering, Univ. Illinois Urbana- Champaign
Electrostatics has been shown to affect both injection and combustion, especially of bio-alcohols, which have a
conductivity significantly higher than hydrocarbon based fuels. This has been manifested in the following
specific ways:
• Application of the appropriate polarity can affect flame morphology. Flames and soot are negatively charged.
Combustion around negatively charged droplets can thus be very unstable because of repulsive forces, whereas
positively charged droplets attract the flames that surround them. The
intensity of combustion and heat transfer is thus affected, which in
turn affects droplet burning time.
• Mixing of conducting (e.g. ethanol) with non-conducting (e.g. isooctane) fuels generate the possibility of electrostatically assisted
phenomena with logistically available fuels, since small percentage of
conductive components can enhance conductivity significantly.
• Butanol has emerged as a fuel that has all the advantages of the
higher conductivity of alcohols without the decreased energy density
of ethanol.