Smaller droplet size increases surface area and taken by itself will decrease the time it takes to evaporate the fuel. However, you have to have heat energy to make the fuel transition to a gas. As heat gets sucked out of the area the plume is occupying, the droplets stay in tact for lack of energy to allow them to transition. Essentially, the size of the droplet becomes moot while the surface area of the plume becomes the overriding factor when the droplets get below a given diameter. The only way additional heat gets into the plume, (remember, the O2 has been displaced by the fuel) is from outside the plume where the fuel meets the air. (FIRE!)
An advantage of the smaller droplets is they tend to produce a shorter/fatter pattern than a larger droplet. But as you see from the patterns on the pistons, not short enough.
An advantage of the smaller droplets is they tend to produce a shorter/fatter pattern than a larger droplet. But as you see from the patterns on the pistons, not short enough.