Flame of glow fuel -Reports

Flame of glow fuel

Flame of fuel

Flame of remained fuel

I have developed a plug driver for glow engine. So I tested and saw how glow fuel burned. I used transparent glass bottle to see burning well. The internal diameter of the bottle is 41mm (16.1"). The photos show flames of glow fuel. The fuel was Aero Star 15 by Cosmo. The photo "Flame of fuel" shows burning flame is almost transparent under natural indoor light in the beginning. Bubbles generated surface of the glow fuel. I think contained methanol in the fuel evoparated severe. The photo "Flame02" to "Flame13" show change of burnning. It burned out before long. The photo "Burnedout16" shows remains of the fuel. I burned the remains on a plate. The flame was orange. See the photo "Flame of remained fuel". The wick was for a stationary string. The remains smell the same of exhausted lubricated oil while running glow engine. I also felt the same of viscosity.

Flame02 Flame03 Flame05 Flame07

Flame09 Flame12 Flame13 Burnedout16

Wick Top view

Remark

methanol nitro methan gasoline

flash point[C] 11° 35° -40°

air-fuel ratio 6.4 4.0 14.7

kcal/kg 5,330 5,370 10,500

I used fuel by Cosmo. Cosmo explains glow fuel well^[1]. glow fuel is mixture of methanol, , lubricants. The flash point of metanol is lower than gasoline. It means that gas engine is easier to start than glow engine. Gasoline has much heat than metahnol twice. A UAV of metanol fuel has to carry two folds of gasoline. Glow fuel contains nitro methan of 15 to 30 % to start easily. But nitro methan is a kind of -NO₂ nitride. This is not good for clean air.

[1] RC nenryou no himitsu