Conference proceeding
Studying Reultrasonication Effects on the Suspension Stability of Stored Nanofuels Based on Optical Measurements
Volume 9: Fluids Engineering
ASME 2023 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, Oct. 29 - Nov. 02, 2023
10/29/2023
DOI: 10.1115/IMECE2023-112467
Abstract
Abstract
Suspensions of pure energetic nanomaterials in a liquid fuel, commonly termed as nanofuels, are desirable for their vastly different combustion properties compared to base fuels. Large scale, as well as lab scale, storage of such nanofuels is very challenging due to settling that occurs in these fuels over time. Various effects including high specific surface area (SSA) and high surface energy of nanoparticles facilitate nanomaterial agglomeration. The gradual agglomeration of the initially dispersed nanoparticles promotes their separation from the base fuel, followed by gravitational settling to the bottom due to the agglomerates growing in size. Reultrasonication of these stored colloidal suspensions has been taken to be the effective, and thus primarily employed, method to redisperse the settled nanomaterials in the base fuel. However, the settling behavior of these reultrasonicated samples can be significantly different from that of the initially prepared samples. This effect can introduce errors in determining important parameters such as burning rate, flame standoff ratio (FSR), and thus contributes to overall uncertainty in experimental results. To address this particular concern, the present research deploys a non-contact, non-invasive, quantitative, and simple experimental configuration to analyze suspension behavior. Soy Biodiesel, a promising renewable fuel was chosen as the base fuel and Acetylene Black was selected as the nanomaterial for the suspensions in this experimental study. Acetylene Black (AB) is both inexpensive and environmentally benign and has been previously employed as a carbon-based nanomaterial fuel additive. Surfactants are commonly used to help disperse nanomaterials, and they are included in this test protocol as well. To investigate the effect of such surfactants on the settling behavior, Span 80 (SP 80), a non-ionic surfactant with a Hydrophilic-lipophilic balance (HLB) value of 4.3, is tested and the effect of its concentration on the settling time of the samples is also recorded.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Studying Reultrasonication Effects on the Suspension Stability of Stored Nanofuels Based on Optical Measurements
- Creators
- Rahat Mollick - University of IowaNitin Nagarkar - University of IowaFord Loskill - Georgia Institute of TechnologyAlbert Ratner - University of Iowa
- Resource Type
- Conference proceeding
- Publication Details
- Volume 9: Fluids Engineering
- Conference
- ASME 2023 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, Oct. 29 - Nov. 02, 2023
- Publisher
- American Society of Mechanical Engineers
- DOI
- 10.1115/IMECE2023-112467
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 10/29/2023
- Academic Unit
- Mechanical Engineering
- Record Identifier
- 9984557838902771
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