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The dense spray region in the near-field of diesel fuel injection remains an enigma. This region is difficult to interrogate with light in the visible range and difficult to model due to the rapid interaction between liquid and gas. In particular, modeling strategies that rely on Lagrangian particle tracking of droplets have struggled in this area. To better represent the strong interaction between phases, Eulerian modeling has proven particularly useful. Models built on the concept of surface area density are advantageous where primary and secondary atomization have not yet produced droplets, but rather form more complicated liquid structures. Surface area density, a more general concept than Lagrangian droplets, naturally represents liquid structures, no matter how complex. These surface area density models, however, have not been directly experimentally validated in the past due to the inability of optical methods to elucidate such a quantity.

Using natural gas in an internal combustion engine (ICE) is emerging as a promising way to improve thermal efficiency and reduce exhaust emissions. In the development of such engine platforms, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) plays a fundamental role in the optimization of geometries and operating parameters. One of the most relevant issues in the simulation of direct injection (DI) gaseous processes is the accurate prediction of the gas jet evolution. The simulation of the injection process for a gaseous fuel does not require complex modeling, nevertheless properly describing high-pressure gas jets remains a challenging task. At the exit of the nozzle, the injected gas is under-expanded, the flow becomes supersonic and shocks occur due to compressibility effects. These phenomena lead to challenging computational requirements resulting from high grid resolution and low computational time-steps.