LAUSR

This study proposes a novel approach to design and evaluate surrogates for liquid fuels, aimed at replicating their evaporative and sooting behaviors. The method was demonstrated for a commercial heating oil. The lack of surrogates found in the literature for this relevant fuel, in addition to its physicochemical complexity, was the primary reason for its choice to test the proposed method. A first surrogate aiming to emulate the evaporative behavior of the target fuel was designed through the combination of a theoretical evaporation model and experimental tests. The second surrogate was formulated to replicate the sooting behavior of heating oil, whereas a third surrogate aimed to match the physicochemical properties relevant for both processes. The so-designed surrogates were validated afterward by means of single-droplet evaporation tests under high-temperature conditions. The obtained evaporation curves served as a benchmark for evaluating the evaporative characteristic, whereas an aspirating probe co...