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The effect of fuel injection on the flow and the spray/swirl and spray/piston interactions in direct-injection diesel engines have been investigated by simulating diesel sprays with gaseous jet(s) injected through centrally located, single- and multi-hole nozzles into the quiescent and swirling air of a motored engine running at 200rpm and incorporating a flat piston and a re-entrant piston-bowl. The axisymmetric velocity field with and without ‘fuel’ injection was characterised by laser velocimetry near TDC of compression in terms of spatially-resolved ensemble-averaged axial and swirl velocities, the ‘fuel’ concentration field was quantified by laser Rayleigh scattering and the two-dimensional flow was visualised by gated still photography using hollow microballoons as light scatterers.

The origin and development of swirl center precession in engine flows has been investigated in a steady flow rig, with and without a porous plate simulating a stationary piston, and in a model engine motored at 200rpm; swirl, in all cases, was generated by means of 60° vanes located in the axisymmetric inlet port. The swirl center performs a helical motion that originates as an instability in the forced-vortex core from its interaction with the axial flow at a free stagnation point and develops in the engine from the piston towards the cylinder head; an opposite trend has been observed in the steady flow case with the open-ended cylinder. In the ensemble-averaged measurements, swirl center precession has been identified by the increased tangential velocity fluctuations around the off-centre zero swirl velocity.

Ensemble-averaged and in-cycle axial and swirl velocities have been measured by laser Doppler anemometry in the three-dimensional flow field of a four-stroke model engine motored at 200 rpm with a compression ratio of 6.7 and various cylinder head and piston geometries. The inlet configurations comprised an axisymmetric port with a shrouded valve and an off-centre port with two valve and swirl generating vane geometries. The piston configurations comprised flat, cylindrical and re-entrant axisymmetric piston-bowls. The results indicate that with the off-centre port a complex vortical flow pattern is generated during induction, which later either collapses in the absence of induction swirl or is transformed into a single rotating vortex in the transverse plane when swirl is present. The axisymmetric port with the shrouded valve gives rise to a double vortex structure and higher turbulence levels at TDC of compression compared to the off-centre port.

The Rayleigh light scattering technique has been used to quantify the mean and fluctuating concentration of a passive scalar used to simulate fuel injection in a reciprocating, two-stroke model engine motored at 200 rpm in the absence of compression. The transient concentration field, which results from injection of Freon-12 vapour through the centre of an axisymmetrically located permanently open valve, has been investigated for injection timings of 40 deg. before and at top-dead-centre as a function of spatial position and crank angle. The purpose-built Rayleigh system, with gated digital data acquisition and software dust particle filtering, was first evaluated in a Freon-12 free jet by comparing results to those obtained with a sampling probe.

The flow structure in a four-stroke model engine motored at 200 rpm with a compression ratio of 3.5 has been investigated. Ensemble-averaged axial and swirl mean and rms velocities have been obtained by laser-Doppler anemometry downstream of an axisymmetrically located single valve with 30 and 60 degree seat angles and various lifts, with and without induction swirl. In all cases, the intake-generated flow structure in the axial plane disappears by the time the inlet valve closes and results in nearly homogeneous turbulence during compression with levels of 0.5–0.7 times the mean piston speed. The swirling flow, however, which is induced by means of vanes, persists through the compression stroke, evolving from a spiralling motion early during intake into solid body type of rotation near TDC of compression, with associated swirl ratios increasing with valve lift.