Search Results

The objective of the paper is the characterization of the macroscopic behavior of Diesel sprays by focusing in at the first instants of the injection process at which the spray is clearly affected by the injector needle dynamic. There are several works dealing with the characterization of Diesel sprays in stationary conditions. Most of them conclude with empirical correlations which predict spray tip penetration as a function of the most important parameters involved in the injection process, such as: injection pressure, gas ambient density, hole diameter and time elapsed from the start of injection. In all these experiments, authors find similar power law dependencies with more or less high level of confidence. Nevertheless, few works have tried to validate or to obtain new correlations for the first instants of the injection process where the spray develops in not stationary conditions because of the influence of injector needle lift.

Starting and operating of diesel engines in cold conditions is a common and important problem. Many factors such as ambient conditions, fuel properties, fuel injection, cranking speed, etc, affect cold engine functionality. In order to improve diesel engine cold start, it is essential to understand better these problems. In this paper the injection development at cold temperatures is studied, since it is an important parameter that affects the fuel interaction with the air, so the future combustion process would also be influenced. In particular, a hydraulic characterization of diesel injection is made, using specialized test rigs that simulate real engine in-cylinder air pressure and density; the fuel is injected from three axi-symmetric convergent nozzles at several injection pressures (30, 50, 80, 120 and 180 MPa), two chamber densities and two temperatures of 255 K (winter) and 298 K (reference).

It is known that one of the main parameters that govern the spray penetration development is spray momentum flux. In this paper, a model capable to predict the development of the spray penetration using as an input the temporal variation of the spray momentum flux is presented. The model is based on the division of the momentum flux signal in momentum packets sequentially injected and the tracking of them inside and at the tip of the spray. These packets follow a theoretical equation which relates the penetration with the ambient density, momentum and time. In order to validate the method, measures of momentum flux (impingement force) and macroscopic spray visualization in high density conditions have been performed on several mono-orifice nozzles. High agreement has been obtained between spray penetration prediction from momentum flux measurements and real spray penetration from macroscopic visualization.

In order to study differences between Diesel nozzle holes, four methodologies have been tested. The techniques compared in this paper are: the internal geometry determination, hole to hole mass flow measurement, spray momentum flux and macroscopic spray visualization. The first one is capable of obtaining the internal geometry of each of the orifice of the nozzle; the second one is capable of measuring the mass flow of each nozzle hole in both, continuous and real injections. The third one gives the momentum flux of each orifice, and finally, with the macroscopic spray visualization, the spray penetration and spray cone angle of each hole, are obtained. Generally, all these techniques can be used in order to determine the hole to hole dispersion due to different angle inclination of the holes, different internal geometry of orifices, deposits, nozzle needle off-center, needle deflection, etc.