Date of Award
8-2026
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Mechanical Engineering
Committee Chair/Advisor
Yuhao Xu
Committee Member
Xiangchun Xuan
Committee Member
Xin Zhao
Abstract
Hot-wall fuel-droplet impingement affects liquid redistribution, secondary droplet formation, and droplet evaporation in diesel-relevant spray-wall systems. This study investigates the spreading and breakup of single n-hexadecane droplets, used as a single-component diesel surrogate, on a heated stainless-steel wall at 300–500 °C over a Weber number (We) range of 5.77–208.61. High-speed backlit images were recorded during experiments and used to classify deposition, rebound, ejection, fragmentation, and splashing regimes, and to measure spreading-factor histories. The measured spreading histories were compared with a lamella-rim model to evaluate its predictive capability before droplet breakup and to infer the lamella state at experimentally observed breakup instants. The 300 °C cases did not enter the Leidenfrost regime under the present impact conditions and therefore serve as a non-Leidenfrost reference and deviate from the model predictions. For Leidenfrost cases at 350–500 °C, the model captures the pre-breakup spreading trajectory, including higher-We cases that later undergo breakup. Wall temperature has limited influence on the early spreading stage but a stronger effect on later breakup timing after lamella thinning, especially in the intermediate-We regime. At high We , breakup becomes increasingly inertia-dominated. Model-inferred lamella thicknesses evaluated at experimentally observed breakup instants lie mainly between 0.010 and 0.017 of the initial droplet diameter. These results suggest that model-inferred lamella thickness can complement conventional Weber-number and temperature-based regime maps by providing local-state information for breakup timing in hot-wall fuel-droplet impingement models.
Recommended Citation
Liang, Xinquan, "Spreading and Breakup of Diesel-Surrogate Droplets on Heated Walls: Experiments and Model-Assisted Analysis" (2026). All Theses. 4812.
https://open.clemson.edu/all_theses/4812