ABSTRACTThe two-phase flow pattern of a flow mixing nozzle plays an important role in jet breakup and atomization. However, the flow pattern of this nozzle and its transformation characteristics are still unclear. A diesel-air injection simulation model of a flow mixing nozzle is established. Then the two-phase flow pattern and transformation characteristics of the flow mixing nozzle is studied using a numerical simulation method. The effect of the air-diesel velocity ratio, ratio of the distance between the tube orifice and nozzle hole and the tube diameter (H/D), and the diesel inlet velocity was studied in terms of the jet breakup diameter (jet diameter at the breakup position) and jet breakup length (length of the diesel jet from the breakup position to the nozzle outlet). The results show that the jet breakup diameter decreases with the decrease in H/D or the increase in the air-diesel velocity ratio and diesel inlet velocity. The jet breakup length increases first and then decreases with the increase in H/D and air-diesel velocity ratio; the trend of the diesel inlet velocity is complicated. In addition, a change in the working conditions also causes some morphological changes that cannot be quantitatively analyzed in the diesel-air flow pattern. The transition characteristics of the flow pattern are analyzed, and it is found that the main reason for the change in the flow pattern is the change in the inertial force of the air, surface tension force, and viscous force of diesel (non-dimensional Reynolds number and Weber number describe the transition characteristics in this paper). The surface tension force of diesel decreases and the viscous force of diesel and inertial force of air increase when the air-diesel velocity ratio increases or H/D decreases. However, the effects of the diesel surface tension force and viscous force effect are much smaller than that of the air inertial force, which changes the diesel-air flow pattern from a drop pattern to a vibration jet pattern, broken jet pattern, and then a chaotic jet pattern.