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- Atomization
- Breaking liquid fuel into a spray of fine drops. The finer the spray, the more surface meets the air.
η
- Viscosity
- How thick a liquid is — its resistance to flow. Thicker fuel breaks up into coarser drops.
σ
- Surface tension
- The pull that holds a liquid's surface together. The higher it is, the harder the liquid is to break into small drops.
d²
- d² law
- A drop's evaporation time grows with the square of its diameter: half the diameter, a quarter of the time.
vdW
- van der Waals forces
- Weak attractions between neighbouring molecules — behind a liquid's viscosity and surface tension.
cm⁻¹
- FTIR spectroscopy
- A laboratory method that identifies chemical bonds by the light they absorb, each type at its own wavenumber (cm⁻¹).
CO
- CO — carbon monoxide
- Carbon that only half-burned. Toxic, and it still holds most of that carbon's energy.
HC
- HC — hydrocarbons
- Fuel that left the engine without burning. Measured in parts per million (ppm).
NOx
- NOx — nitrogen oxides
- Formed from the air's own nitrogen in the heat of the flame.
HSU
- Smoke opacity (HSU)
- How much light diesel smoke blocks — a measure of soot. Hartridge Smoke Units run from 0 to 100.
ppm
- ppm
- Parts per million: 100 ppm is 0.01%.
RON
- RON
- Research octane number — petrol's resistance to knock. It stayed at 95.1 before and after.