Jones Margaret C, Campbell Kristen B, Coffey Mary Jane, Marina Olga A, Coffey Gregory W, Heredia-Langner Alejandro, Linehan John C, Thomsen Edwin C, Bays J Timothy
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 902 Battelle Blvd., Richland, Washington 99352, USA.
Rev Sci Instrum. 2020 Sep 1;91(9):094102. doi: 10.1063/5.0015518.
This work presents a new technique for evaluating the solid-liquid phase transformations in complex diesel fuel blends and diesel surrogates under high-pressure conditions intended to simulate those occurring in vehicle fuel injectors. A high-pressure apparatus based on a visual identification of freezing and thawing has been designed and built to monitor phase behavior and determine the crystallization temperature of complex fuels to predict wax precipitation. The proposed methodology was validated using pure substances-n-hexadecane (CH), cyclohexane (CH), and a mixture of 0.5848 mol fraction n-hexadecane in cyclohexane. The crystallization temperatures of these compounds were measured from atmospheric pressure to 400 MPa for temperatures varying from 290 K to 363 K and compared to those reported in the literature. The standard error of the estimated temperatures for the experimental data obtained in this work, based on a given pressure, was compared to data from the literature. This methodology will be extended to investigate the properties of more complex fuel mixtures.
