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High-speed movie films, and laser-diffraction drop sizing were used to evaluate the structure, penetration rate, cone angle, and drop size distribution of diesel sprays in a constant volume pressure vessel. As further means of evaluating the data, comparisons are made between the film measurements, and calculations from a dense gas jet model. In addition to the high-speed film data that describes the overall structure of the spray as a function of time, a laser diffraction instrument was used to measure drop size distribution through a cross-section of the spray. In terms of the growth of the total spray volume (a rough measure of the amount of air entrained in the spray), spray impingement causes an initial delay, but generally the same overall growth rate as an equivalent unimpeded spray. Agreement between measurements and calculations is excellent for a diesel spray with a 0.15 mm D orifice and relatively high injection pressures.

Heating neat (100 percent) methanol fuel (M100) is shown to improve dramatically the atomization of the fuel from a production, automotive, port fuel injector of pintle design. This improvement is particularly noticeable and important when compared with atomization at low fuel temperatures, corresponding to those conditions where cold-start is a significant problem with neat methanol-fueled (M100) vehicles. The improved atomization is demonstrated with photographs and laser-diffraction measurements of the drop-size distributions. Fuel temperatures were varied from -34°C (-29°F to 117°C (243°F), while the boiling point of methanol is 64.7°C (148.5°F). Air temperatures were ambient at about 24°C (75°F). For temperatures above the boiling point, some flash boiling and vaporization were presumably occurring, and these may have contributed to the atomization, but the trends for drop size did not shown any discontinuity near the boiling point.