Development and CFD Validation of an Integrated Model for Marine Heavy Fuel Oil Thermophysical Properties

The paper presents a new integrated model for calculating the thermophysical properties of marine heavy fuel oil (HFO). The model considers HFO as an equivalent one-component heavy petroleum fraction with undefined composition and requires as input four values of fuel bulk properties commonly measured at fuel bunkering. Thus, the model accounts for any HFO quality stored onboard a vessel. The model predicts a large set of fuel properties relevant for engine computational fluid dynamics (CFD) studies, including temperature dependence. First, model validation is performed by means of measurements of a number of properties for different HFO qualities. Next, the model is applied to calculate the thermophysical properties of seven widely used marine heavy fuel grades as prescribed by current standards. Finally, the model is tested with CFD simulations of nonreactive HFO spray flow in a large constant-volume chamber, and the results are compared against recent experiments. Computational results are in very good agreement with experiments. Overall, the present model is deemed very promising, yielding a solid basis for CFD studies of HFO combustion in marine engines.