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The atomisation characteristics of DI diesel engine fuel injection nozzles have been the subject of intensive study over the last decade. Much of this work has been related to clean, single hole nozzles spraying into quiescent air, at either ambient conditions or elevated pressures and temperatures. Experience shows that fuel injector nozzles may foul very rapidly in field service, and that this might have a significant effect on the performance of the engine particularly with regard to emissions. The build up of material on the injector nozzle can be controlled by the addition of suitable fuel additives. This paper describes test procedures developed to assess deposit build up and to indicate the efficacy of keep clean additives. The paper then goes on to describe high speed photographic techniques for studying the fuel spray characteristics of clean and fouled injectors in a firing engine.

An 8.5 inch bore two stroke engine has been modified into a photographic test rig in which pictures of the complete combustion chamber could be taken vertically upwards through a perspex crowned piston, using a high speed camera. Tests were carried out using several nozzles of the same total hole area. Two fuelling rates and three different air supply pressures were used. At each test condition thirteen cycles of fired data were recorded on 16 mm high speed colour film. At the same time synchronised transient cylinder pressure and fuel injection data were recorded using an on-line data acquisition system. Correlation of jet development from photographs with heat release deduced from the cylinder pressure diagrams using a standard single zone technique show differences due to changes in the hole configuration and in air supply pressure, with approximately constant fuel injection rates.