Shortwave Sportfishing wrote:
On 12 Jun 2006 18:52:06 -0700, "
wrote:


wrote:
K. Smith wrote:

Only gases burn, no liquids no matter how flammable they are, actually
"burn", all liquids that can burn only do so once they're fully
vapourised. It's the vapour that allows oxygen to be available to
support the combustion.


Are you sure that's correct?

I think diesel fuel is atomized, not vaporized, to support combustion.
The fuel can burn because each microdrop is surrounded by an atmosphere
that contains oxygen.

Never mind. Additional consideration arrives at a conclusion that
supports your theory;
the microdrops evaporate into the atmosphere of the cylinder
immediately prior to combustion. "Evaporate" as in material ceases to
behave as a liquid and begins behaving as a gas.

Nope - sorry.

Ever hear of dust explosions in grain elevators? The dust in the air
is a form of vapor, not atomized and they never change state. There
are essentially in the same form from start to finish.

Same with gas and diesel.

Diesel is a vapor as is gasoline - at no point in the combustion
process does it become a gas until acted upon by heat and compression.

Atomizing is only a function of breaking up the larger vapor particles
into small parts - it never changes form into a "gas".

You're likely right, my point was that a vapor behaves like a gas
rather than like a liquid.
But "diesel" isn't a vapor, nor is gasoline, prior to being introduced
into combustion.
You won't convince me that the diesel in my fuel tanks isn't a liquid,
no matter how many charts, graphs, and scientific facts are presented.
:-)

Also, in order for diesel to be atomized into a cylinder by the
injector pump it has to be liquid. Anybody who ever ran out of fuel
with a diesel engine knows that the pump won't move anything less dense
than a liquid.

So, in the nano-second that the atomized diesel is sprayed into the
cylinder and the droplets dispersed, why is it not a liquid? The little
microdrops will then evaporate into the
surrounding hot gas environment for another nano-second and behave like
a gas, and following the conversion of hydrocarbon molecules during
combustion the entire volume of the cylinder can then be truly and
officially classified as an "exhaust gas". Right?