MECHANISM AND CHARACTERISTICS OF GEL FUEL IGNITION

Recently, prospective direction of the combustion theory development is the preparation of fuel compositions and study of the composite fuels ignition characteristics, for example, in the form of emulsions and suspensions. Such fuels and their combustion processes are characterized by higher environmental, energy, economic, and operational properties. Of great interest is the use of gel fuels prepared by thickening emulsions and suspensions to the state of elastically deformable materials for the aerospace industry and thermal power engineering. Gel fuels have advantages over widespread liquid fuels in environmental and fire safety aspects of storage processes, transportation, and combustion.

Modeling of Sedimentation and Creaming in Suspensions and Pickering Emulsions

Suspensions and emulsions are prone to kinetic instabilities of sedimentation and creaming, wherein the suspended particles and droplets fall or rise through a matrix fluid. It is important to understand and quantify sedimentation and creaming in such dispersed systems as they affect the shelf-life of products manufactured in the form of suspensions and emulsions. In this article, the unhindered and hindered settling/creaming behaviors of conventional emulsions and suspensions are first reviewed briefly. The available experimental data on settling/creaming of concentrated emulsions and suspensions are interpreted in terms of the drift flux theory. Modeling and simulation of nanoparticle-stabilized Pickering emulsions are carried out next. The presence of nanoparticles at the oil/water interface has a strong influence on the creaming/sedimentation behaviors of single droplets and swarm of droplets. Simulation results clearly demonstrate the strong influence of three-phase contact angle of nanoparticles present at the oil/water interface. This is the first definitive study dealing with modeling and simulation of unhindered and hindered creaming and sedimentation behaviors of nanoparticle-stabilized Pickering emulsions.