The effect of nozzle geometry over internal flow and spray formation for three different fuels

Abstract

The influence of internal nozzle flow characteristics over macroscopic spray development is studied experimentally for two different nozzle geometries and three fuels. The measurements include a complete hydraulic characterization consisting of instantaneous injection rate and spray momentum flux measurements, followed by a high-speed visualization of isothermal liquid spray in combination with cylindrical and conical nozzle configurations. Two of the fuels are pure components—n-heptane and n-dodecane—while the third fuel consists of a three-component surrogate to better represent the physical and chemical properties of diesel fuel. The cylindrical nozzle with 8.6% larger diameter, in spite of higher mass flow rate and momentum flux, shows slower spray tip penetration when compared to the conical nozzle. The spreading angle is found to be inversely proportional to the spray tip penetration. The spreading angle is largely influenced by the nozzle geometry and the ambient density. Rail pressure was found to have weak influence on the near-field spreading angle and no influence on the standard deviation of the spreading angle. n-Heptane spray shows slowest penetration rates while n-dodecane and the surrogate fuel mixture show very similar spray behavior for variations in injection pressure and back pressure. However, the surrogate fuel mixture shows higher penetration than n-dodecane when using the conical nozzle and lower penetration than n-dodecane when using cylindrical nozzle.