Experimental study of sprays with isooctane, hexane, ethanol and their binary mixtures under different flash boiling intensities

•Macroscopic characteristics of multi-component sprays were investigated with DBI.•Droplet sizes under different flash boiling intensities were measured by PDA.•Spray collapsed when ambient-to-saturation pressure dropped below 0.3 for all fuels.•Latent heat of vaporization significantly affected droplet size and spray morphology.•Aerodynamic breakup was only significant when flash boiling intensity was low.