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Two-dimensional pulse-laser Mie scattering visualization of the direct-injection gasoline fuel sprays and wall impingement processes was carried out inside a single-cylinder optically accessible engine under motoring condition. The injectors have been first characterized inside a pressurized chamber using identical technique, as well as high-speed microscopic visualization and phase Doppler measurement techniques. The effects of injector cone angle, location, and injection timings on the wall impingement processes were investigated. It was found that the fuel vaporization is not complete at the constant engine speed tested. Fuel spray droplets were observed to disperse wider in the motored engine when compared with an isothermal quiescent ambient conditions. The extent of wall-impingement varies significantly with the injector mounting position and spray cone angle; however, its effect can be reduced to some extent by optimizing the injection timing.

The direct injection spray-wall interactions were investigated experimentally using high-speed laser-sheet imaging, shadowgraphy, wetted footprints and phase Doppler interferometry techniques. A narrow-cone high-pressure swirl injector is used to inject iso-octane fuel onto a plate, at three different impact angles inside a pressurized chamber. Heated air and plate conditions were compared with unheated cases. Injection interval was also varied in the heated case to compare dry- and wet- wall impingement behaviors. High-speed macroscopic Mie-scattering images showed that presence of wall and air temperature has only minor effect on the bulk spray structure and penetration speed for the narrow-cone injector tested. The overall bulk motions of the spray plume and its spatial position at a given time are basically unaffected until a few millimeters before impacting the wall.

Propagation-based and phase-enhanced x-ray imaging was developed as a unique metrology technique to visualize the internal structure of high-pressure fuel injection nozzles. We have visualized the microstructures inside 200-μm fuel injection nozzles in a 3-mm-thick steel housing using this novel technique. Furthermore, this new x-ray-based metrology technique has been used to directly study the highly transient needle motion in the nozzles in situ and in real-time, which is virtually impossible by any other means. The needle motion has been shown to have the most direct effect on the fuel jet structure and spray formation immediately outside of the nozzle. In addition, the spray cone-angle has been perfectly correlated with the numerically simulated fuel flow inside the nozzle due to the transient nature of the needle during the injection.

Developing a complete understanding of the structure and behavior of the near-wall region (NWR) in reciprocating, internal combustion (IC) engines and of its interaction with the core flow is needed to support the implementation of advanced combustion and engine operation strategies, as well as predictive computational models. The NWR in IC engines is fundamentally different from the canonical steady-state turbulent boundary layers (BL), whose structure, similarity and dynamics have been thoroughly documented in the technical literature. Motivated by this need, this paper presents results from the analysis of two-component velocity data measured with particle image velocimetry near the head of a single-cylinder, optical engine. The interaction between the NWR and the core flow was quantified via statistical moments and two-point velocity correlations, determined at multiple distances from the wall and piston positions.

In previous work, Reuss [1] studied the cycle-to-cycle variation in the large-scale velocity structures of high and low-swirl in-cylinder flows of an IC engine. The vector flow fields were obtained from PIV measurements in a two-valve, pancake-shaped, Transparent Combustion Chamber (TCC) engine. In this study, the Reynolds-decomposed turbulence properties such as kinetic energy, length scales, and dissipation rate were directly measured for the two cases. The results demonstrate that, at TDC compression, the low-swirl flow is dominated by turbulence at the largest scales, whereas the high-swirl flow has a considerably lower turbulence Reynolds number. The dissipation rate and length scale calculated from mixing-length theory greatly exceeded the dissipation computed from the 2-D velocity-gradients and integral-length scales computed from the autocorrelation, respectively.

A global characterization of the spray distribution of various current and development types of automotive fuel injectors was obtained. Axial and radial measurement of droplet sizes, velocities and volume fluxes were made with a phase Doppler particle analyzer (PDPA) for a transient port injector spray in quiescent atmospheric conditions. Time-resolved measurements involving the time-of-arrival of each droplet associated with its size and velocity components were also acquired. Additionally, the liquid sprays emanating from various types of port fuel injectors were visualized, through planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF) technique, at different time instants. Such detailed study provides an improved understanding of the temporal or unsteady behavior of port injector spray.

Plenoptic particle tracking velocimetry (PTV) shows great potential for three-dimensional, three-component (3D3C) flow measurement with a simple single-camera setup. It is therefore especially promising for applications in systems with limited optical access, such as internal combustion engines. The 3D visualization of a plenoptic imaging system is achieved by inserting a micro-lens array directly anterior to the camera sensor. The depth is calculated from reconstruction of the resulting multi-angle view sub-images. With the present study, we demonstrate the application of a plenoptic system for 3D3C PTV measurement of engine-like air flow in a steady-state engine flow bench. This system consists of a plenoptic camera and a dual-cavity pulsed laser. The accuracy of the plenoptic PTV system was assessed using a dot target moved by a known displacement between two PTV frames.

Simultaneous two-component measurements of gas velocity and multi-dimensional numerical simulation are employed to characterize the evolution of the in-cylinder turbulent flow structure in a re-entrant bowl-in-piston engine under motored operation. The evolution of the mean flow field, turbulence energy, turbulent length scales, and the various terms contributing to the production of the turbulence energy are correlated and compared, with the objectives of clarifying the physical mechanisms and flow structures that dominate the turbulence production and of identifying the source of discrepancies between the measured and simulated turbulence fields. Additionally, the applicability of the linear turbulent stress modeling hypothesis employed in the k-ε model is assessed using the experimental mean flow gradients, turbulence energy, and length scales.

In-cylinder fluid velocity is measured in an optically accessible, fired HSDI engine at idle. The velocity field is also calculated, including the full induction stroke, using multi-dimensional fluid dynamics and combustion simulation models. A detailed comparison between the measured and calculated velocities is performed to validate the computed results and to gain a physical understanding of the flow evolution. Motored measurements are also presented, to clarify the effects of the fuel injection process and combustion on the velocity field evolution. The calculated mean in-cylinder angular momentum (swirl ratio) and mean flow structures prior to injection agree well with the measurements. Modification of the mean flow by fuel injection and combustion is also well captured.

An experimental study was carried out to investigate the spray behavior inside engine intake ports. Production-type intake ports of four-valve gasoline engines were modified for the optical access at directions. The global spray formation process was visualized through laser Mie scattering technique. The spray breakup and atomization processes, spray targeting and fuel dispersing characteristics were investigated as a function of elapse time after fuel injection. The spray interaction with the port wall and port air flow were examined with different types of port fuel injectors including single-stream, multi-stream, and air-shrouded ones. The spray targeting and dispersing characteristics inside two different intake ports were examined. It was found that spray targeting and fuel dispersion inside the intake port are strongly dependent on the spray characteristics, as a result of different injector designs and injector installation positions.

Operation of flex fuel vehicles requires operation with a range of fuel properties. The significant differences in the heat of vaporization and energy density of E0-E100 fuels and the effect on spray development need to be fully comprehended when developing engine control strategies. Limited enthalpy for fuel vaporization needs to be accounted for when developing injection strategies for cold start, homogeneous and stratified operation. Spray imaging of multi-hole gasoline injectors with fuels ranging from E0 to E100 and environmental conditions that represent engine operating points from ambient cold start to hot conditions was performed in a spray chamber. Schlieren visualization technique was used to characterize the sprays and the results were compared with Laser Mie scattering and Back-lighting technique. Open chamber experiments were utilized to provide input and validation of a CFD model.

Accurate predictions of in-cylinder heat transfer processes of internal combustion engines (ICEs) require a comprehensive understanding of the boundary layer development in the near-wall region (NWR). To add to the understanding of this NWR, this study uses experimental data of near-wall measurements collected in the transparent combustion chamber (TCC-III) engine via Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and toluene Planar Laser Induced Fluorescence (PLIF) thermometry. These near-wall flow and temperature distributions were compared with large-eddy simulations (LES) and 3-D conjugate heat transfer (CHT) modeling with a commercial CFD code (CONVERGE). The implementation of the conjugate heat transfer model enables capturing the variability in wall heat transfer as observed in the measurements.

Various fluorescence tracers were assessed for their applicability for simultaneously measuring fuel distributions of different volatility classes. Tracers were chosen to show significantly different boiling behaviour representing three volatility classes of non-fluorescing multi-component fuels. Fluorescence properties of the markers were investigated using a heated static high-pressure cell with respect to emission behaviour, temperature and pressure dependence and quenching influences. A combination of ketonic and aromatic tracers appeared to be ideal for simultaneous imaging purposes since fluorescence is emitted in separate spectral regions with little overlap. Simultaneous measurements of the fuel distribution of two volatility classes were performed in a port fuel injected engine showing significant differences in the fuel distributions of low and mid boiling fractions in early stages of compression.

Simulations using CFD and chemical kinetics models have been applied to gain a better understanding of the effect of the recirculated gases on the autoignition process during cold starting of a direct injection diesel engine. The cranking gases recirculated (CGR) contain fuel vapor and partial oxidation products which affect the autoignition process in different ways. Some hydrocarbons (HCs) species enhance the reaction rates and reduce ignition delay. Meanwhile other HCs species and the partial oxidation products of the autoignition process have an opposing effect. The simulation covered a wide range of the hydrocarbons and aldehydes concentrations and their effect on the ignition delay in a 1.2L Ford DIATA 4-cylinders, water cooled, turbocharged and intercooled diesel engine. The simulated opposing effects of HCs and HCHO on the ignition delay are validated by experimental results at room temperature.

This presentation is an assessment of the turbulence-stress scale-similarity in an IC engine, which is used for modeling subgrid dissipation in LES. Residual stresses and Leonard stresses were computed after applying progressively smaller spatial filters to measured and simulated velocity distributions. The velocity was measured in the TCC-II engine using planar and stereo PIV taken in three different planes and with three different spatial resolutions, thus yielding two and three velocity components, respectively. Comparisons are made between the stresses computed from the measured velocity and stress computed from the LES resolved-scale velocity from an LES simulation. The results present the degree of similarity between the residual stresses and the Leonard stresses at adjacent scales. The specified filters are systematically reduced in size to the resolution limits of the measurements and simulation.

A quantitative and time-resolved technique has been developed to probe the dense spray structure of direct-injection (DI) gasoline sprays in near-nozzle region. This technique uses the line-of-sight absorption of monochromatic x-rays from a synchrotron source to measure the fuel mass with time resolution better than 1 μs. The small scattering cross-section of fuel at x-rays regime allows direct measurements of spray structure that are difficult with most visible-light optical techniques. Appropriate models were developed to determine the fuel density as a function of time.

Ultraviolet chemiluminescence has been observed in a diesel engine cyclinder during compression, but prior to fuel injection under engine starting conditions. During a portion of the warm-up sequence, the intensity of this emission exhibits a strong correlation to the phasing of the subsequent combustion. Engine exhaust measurements taken from a continuously misfiring, motored engine confirm the generation of formaldehyde (HCHO) in such processes. Fractions of this compound are expected to be recycled as residual to participate in the following combustion cycle. Spectral measurements taken during the compression period prior to fuel injection match the features of Emeleus' cool flame HCHO bands that have been observed during low temperature heat release reactions occurring in lean HCCI combustion. That the signal from the OH* bands is weak implies a buildup of HCHO during compression.

For the application of advanced clean combustion technologies, such as diesel HCCI/LTC, a compressor with high efficiency over a broad operation range is required to supply a high amount of EGR with minimum pumping loss. A compressor with high pitch of vaneless diffuser would substantially improve the flow range of the compressor, but it is at the cost of compressor efficiency, especially at low mass flow area where most of the city driving cycles resides. In present study, an ultra low solidity compressor vane diffuser was numerically investigated. It is well known that the flow leaving the impeller is highly distorted, unsteady and turbulent, especially at relative low mass flow rate and near the shroud side of the compressor. A conventional vaned diffuser with high stagger angle could help to improve the performance of the compressor at low end. However, adding diffuser vane to a compressor typically restricts the flow range at high end.

Analysis of flow field and charge distribution in a gasoline direct-injection (GDI) engine is performed by a modified version of the KIVA code. A particle-based spray model is proposed to simulate a swirl-type hollow-cone spray in a GDI engine. Spray droplets are assumed to be fully atomized and introduced at the sheet breakup locations as determined by experimental correlations and energy conservation. The effects of the fuel injection parameters such as spray cone angle and ambient pressure are examined for different injectors and injection conditions. Results show reasonable agreement with the measurements for penetration, dispersion, global shape, droplet velocity and size distribution by Phase Doppler Particle Anemometry(PDPA) in a constant-volume chamber. The test engine is a 4-stroke 4-valve optically accessible single-cylinder engine with a pent-roof head and tumble ports.

By taking advantage of high-intensity and high-brilliance x-ray beams available at the Advanced Photon Source (APS), ultrafast (150 ps) propagation-based phase-enhanced imaging was developed to visualize high-pressure high-speed diesel sprays in the optically dense near-nozzle region. The sub-ns temporal and μm spatial resolution allows us to capture the morphology of the high-speed fuel sprays traveling at 500 m/s with a negligible motion blur. Both quality and quantitative information about the spray feature can be readily obtained. In the experiment, two types of single-hole nozzles have been used, one with a hydroground orifice inlet and the other with a sharp one. Within 3 mm from the nozzle, the sprays from these nozzles behave differently, ranging from laminar flow with surface instability waves to turbulent flow. The sprays are correlated with the nozzle internal geometry, which provides practical information for both nozzle design and supporting numerical simulation models.