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An enlarged transparent model of a six-hole vertical diesel injector has been manufactured in order to allow flow measurements inside the sac volume and the injection holes to be obtained using a combination of laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV) and the refractive index matching technique under steady state conditions. The measurement points were concentrated in the sac volume close to the entrance of the injection holes as well as inside them on a vertical plane passing through the axis of two injection holes for two different needle lifts. The velocity flow field was characterized in terms of the mean velocity and the turbulent intensity. The results revealed that, under certain conditions, cavitation may occur in the recirculation zone formed at the entrance to the hole since the pressure in this region can reach the value of the vapor pressure of the flowing liquid; this was found to strongly depend on the needle lift and eccentricity.

The injection rate signals from a commercial diesel fuel injection system, based on a distributor pump driven by a DC motor, were characterised independently and consecutively by two injection rate meters based on the Zeuch and Bosch methods. The signals were first analysed in terms of their shot-to-shot variations over 64 consecutive injections and the correlations between needle lift and injection rate over a range of pump speeds and loads quantified by Fast Fourier Transform. A direct comparison of the injection rate signals on a cycle-resolved basis was achieved by connecting two consecutive injectors from the pump-line-nozzle injection system to a Bosch- and a Zeuch-based injection rate meters. The signals were acquired over a large number of injections in terms of mean and rms of the injected quantity, mean injection rate, maximum injection rate, average cumulative fuel injected and average injection duration.

The spatial and temporal characteristics of the non-evaporating diesel sprays injected into the atmosphere through two pump-pipe-nozzle systems used in small DI diesel engines have been investigated by laser-single-beam deflection and phase-Doppler anemometry (PDA). The injectors used for these tests comprised a single-spring and a prototype two-spring multihole-type nozzle. The results provided quantitative information about the effect that the second spring exerts on injection duration and spray characteristics, i.e. it increases injection duration and, at the same time, improves fuel atomisation during the main injection period.

A visualization study using shadowgraphy was performed in an optically-accessible, cylindrical constant-volume combustion chamber to identify the mechanism of flow/flame interaction in spark-ignited, lean propane-air mixtures. The effect of the flow on flame initiation and propagation was examined by varying the pre-ignition mean flow and turbulence within a range typical of modern four-valve spark-ignition (SI) engines, as well as the spark plug orientation relative to the mean flow. The initial flame development was quantified in terms of 2-D images which provided information about the projected flame area and the displacement of the flame center as a function of flow conditions, time from the spark initiation and spark plug orientation. The results showed that high mean flow velocities and turbulence levels can shorten combustion duration in lean mixtures and that the positioning of the ground electrode can have an important effect on the initial kernel formation.

The continuity and momentum equations for a pump-pipe-nozzle fuel injection system have been solved by a computer simulation program employing both the Runge-Kutta method and the more widely used method of characteristics. This allows the prediction of fluid phenomena and the dynamics of the mechanical components based on the geometry of the FIE system. The simulation includes the effects of possible cavitation, system leakage as well as variations in fuel density and bulk modulus. The computer model has been made as flexible as possible by using a modular format and inputting the system parameters from external files or dialog boxes. Experimentation was done on a Bosch VE type distributor pump supplying a multi-hole type nozzle which allowed preliminary evaluation of the model by comparing the predicted and measured injection rates and line pressures over a range of pump speeds and loads.

The spray development, combustion and emissions in a 1.9L optical, four-cylinder, direct-injection diesel engine were investigated by means of pressure analysis, high-speed cinematography, the two-colour method and exhaust gas analysis for various levels of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR), three EGR temperatures (uncontrolled, hot and cold) and three fuels (diesel, n-heptane and a two-component fuel 7D3N). Engine operating conditions included 1000 rpm/idle and 2000 rpm/2bar with EGR-rates ranging from 0 to 70%. Independent of rate, EGR was found to have a very small effect on spray angle and spray tip penetration but the auto-ignition sites seemed to increase in size and number at higher EGR-rates with associated reduction in the flame luminosity and flame temperature, by, say, 100K at 50% EGR.

A diesel spray model has been developed and validated against experimental data obtained for different injection and surrounding gas conditions to allow investigation of the relative importance of the different physical processes occurring during the spray development. The model is based on the Eulerian-Lagrangian approximation and the Navier-Stokes equations, simulating the gas motion, are numerically solved on a collocated non-uniform curvilinear non-orthogonal grid, while the spray equation is solved numerically using a Lagrangian particle tracking method. The injection conditions are determined by another recently developed model calculating the flow in the fuel injection system, the sac volume and injection holes area which accounts for the details of the injection velocity, the fuel injection rate per injection hole and occurrence of hole cavitation. Thus, differences between the sprays from inclined multihole injectors can be simulated and analysed.

A computer model simulating the flow in fuel injection systems has been used in order to investigate the fuel injection processes in an in-line pump-based fuel injection system for direct-injection diesel engines. The model is one-dimensional and it is based on the mass and momentum conservation equations for the simulation of the fuel flow and on the equilibrium of forces for the simulation of the mechanical movements of the valves present in the system. The fuel injection system tested comprised an in-line pump whose characteristics were examined by using as input the measured line pressure signal and by modeling the pump operation itself as well as the fuel flow through single- and two-stage injectors. For the validation of the model, extensive comparison with experimental data has been performed for a wide range of pump operating conditions.

A combined two-phase CFD nozzle model and 1-D fuel injection system model is used to predict the flow development inside the discharge hole of a pressure-swirl atomizer connected to a common-rail based fuel injection system for DISI engines. The fuel injection model accounts for the transient pressure pulses developing inside the common-rail and the injector upstream of the nozzle tip and predicts the fuel injection rate through the nozzle. This is then used as input to a 3-D single-phase CFD model estimating the transient development of the swirl velocity inside the pressure-swirl atomizer, as a function of the geometric characteristics of nozzle.

A new simulation approach to the modeling of the whole fuel injection process within a common-rail fuel injection system for direct-injection gasoline engines, including the pressure-swirl atomizer and the conical hollow-cone spray formed at the nozzle exit, is presented. The flow development in the common-rail fuel injection system is simulated using an 1-D model which accounts for the wave dynamics within the system and predicts the actual injection pressure and injection rate throughout the nozzle. The details of the flow inside its various flow passages and the discharge hole of the pressure-swirl atomizer are investigated using a two-phase CFD model which calculates the location of the liquid-gas interface using the VOF method and estimates the transient formation of the liquid film developing on the walls of the discharge hole due to the centrifugal forces acting on the swirling fluid.

A production six-hole conical sac-type nozzle incorporating a quartz window in one of the injection holes has been used in order to visualize the flow under cavitating flow conditions. Simultaneous variation of both the injection and the back chamber pressures allowed images to be obtained at various cavitation and Reynolds numbers for two different fixed needle lifts corresponding to the first- and the second-stage lift of two-stage injectors. The flow visualization system was based on a fast and high resolution CCD camera equipped with high magnification lenses which allowed details of the various flow regimes formed inside the injection hole to be identified. From the obtained images both hole cavitation initiated at the top inlet corner of the hole as well as string cavitation formed inside the sac volume and entering into the hole from the bottom corner, were identified to occur at different cavitation and Reynolds numbers.