Simultaneous two-phase flow measurement of spray mixing process by means of high-speed two-color PIV

Abstract

In this article, a novel high-speed two-color PIV optical diagnostic technique has been developed and applied to simultaneously measure the velocity flow-fields of a multi-hole spark-ignition direct injection (SIDI) fuel injector spray and its ambient gas in a high-pressure constant volume chamber. To allow for the phase discrimination between the fuel droplets and ambient gas, a special tracer-filter system was designed. Fluorescent seeding particles with Sauter mean diameter (SMD) of 4.8 µm were used to trace the gas inside the chamber. With a single high-speed Nd:YLF laser sheet (527 nm) as the incident light source, the Mie-scattering signal marked the phase of the fuel spray, while the fluorescent signal generated from the seeding particles tracked the phase of ambient gas. A high-speed camera, with an image-doubler (mounted in front of the camera lens) that divided the camera pixels into two parts focusing on the same field of view, was used to collect the Mie-scattering signal and LIF (laser induced fluorescence) signal simultaneously with two carefully selected optical filters. To accommodate the large dynamic range of velocities in the two phases (1–2 orders of magnitude difference), two separation times (dt) were introduced. This technique was successfully applied to the liquid spray and ambient gas two-phase flow measurement. The measurement accuracy was compared with those from LDV (laser Doppler velocimetry) measurement and good agreement was obtained. Ambient gas motion surrounding the fuel spray was investigated and characterized into three zones. The momentum transfer process between the fuel spray and ambient gas in each zone was analyzed. The two-phase flow interaction under various superheated conditions was investigated. A strengthened momentum transfer from the liquid spray to the ambient was observed with increased superheat degree.