Spray Collapse Research Articles

Development of Primary Breakup Model with Internal and Near-Field Simulation to Predict Spray Collapse of Gasoline Direct Injection (Gdi) Injector

Development of Primary Breakup Model with Internal and Near-Field Simulation to Predict Spray Collapse of Gasoline Direct Injection (Gdi) Injector

Experimental investigations of the phase change impacts on flash boiling spray propagations and impingements

Flash boiling atomization technique has been considered a potential method for spray breakup performance enhancement utilizing the micro-explosion of superheated liquid. But the strong evaporative features of flash boiling atomization are not thoroughly investigated and understood. For instance, the impact of flash boiling atomization on the liquid mass fraction inside the spray plume and the influence on the formation of spray impingement wall film are not clear. Therefore, this work focuses on the phase change impacts of flash boiling atomization and measures the volume flux of the liquid component during flash boiling atomization using phase Doppler interferometry. This work further investigates the consequence of flash boiling spray collapse in the aspect of spray impingement, with the two-dimensional thickness and temperature distribution measured by laser-induced exciplex fluorescence technique. Both free sprays and impinging sprays with the same settings (and different temperatures) are examined for compassion. This investigation verifies that due to the phase change of flash boiling atomization, the liquid component inside the plume drops significantly so that the wall impingement performance cannot be evaluated with spray penetration length only. Such observations also hold even spray collapse takes place using a multi-hole fuel injector.

Large-Eddy Simulation of Laser-Ignited Direct Injection Gasoline Spray for Emission Control

Large-Eddy Simulations (LES) of a gasoline spray, where the mixture was ignited rapidly during or after injection, were performed in comparison to a previous experimental study with quantitative flame motion and soot formation data [SAE 2020-01-0291] and an accompanying Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) simulation at the same conditions. The present study reveals major shortcomings in common RANS combustion modeling practices that are significantly improved using LES at the conditions of the study, specifically for the phenomenon of rapid ignition in the highly turbulent, stratified mixture. At different ignition timings, benchmarks for the study include spray mixing and evaporation, flame propagation after ignition, and soot formation in rich mixtures. A comparison of the simulations and the experiments showed that the LES with Dynamic Structure turbulence were able to capture correctly the liquid penetration length, and to some extent, spray collapse demonstrated in the experiments. For early and intermediate ignition timings, the LES showed excellent agreement to the measurements in terms of flame structure, extent of flame penetration, and heat-release rate. However, RANS simulations (employing the common G-equation or well-stirred reactor) showed much too rapid flame spread and heat release, with connections to the predicted turbulent kinetic energy. With confidence in the LES for predicted mixture and flame motion, the predicted soot formation/oxidation was also compared to the experiments. The soot location was well captured in the LES, but the soot mass was largely underestimated using the empirical Hiroyasu model. An analysis of the predicted fuel–air mixture was used to explain different flame propagation speeds and soot production tendencies when varying ignition timing.

Liquid Propane Injection in Flash-Boiling Conditions

This study aimed to investigate the influence of flash-boiling conditions on liquid propane sprays formed by a multi-hole injector at various injection pressures. The focus was on spray structures, which were analysed qualitatively and quantitatively by means of spray-tip penetration and global spray angle. The effect of flash boiling was evaluated in terms of trends observed for subcooled conditions. Propane was injected by a commercial gasoline direct injector into a constant volume vessel filled with nitrogen at pressures from 0.1 MPa up to 6 MPa. The temperature of the injected liquid was kept constant. The evolution of the spray penetration was observed by a high-speed camera with a Schlieren set-up. The obtained results provided information on the spray evolution in both regimes, above and below the saturation pressure of the propane. Based on the experimental results, an attempt to calibrate a simulation model has been made. The main advantage of the study is that the effects of injection pressure on the formation of propane sprays were investigated for both subcooled and flash-boiling conditions. Moreover, the impact of the changing viscosity and surface tension was limited, as the temperature of the injected liquid was kept at the same level. The results showed that despite very different spray behaviours in the subcooled and flash-boiling regimes, leading to different spray structures and a spray collapse for strong flash boiling, the influence of injection pressure on propane sprays in terms of spray-tip penetration and spray angle is very similar for both conditions, subcooled and flash boiling. As for the numerical model, there were no single model settings to simulate the flashing sprays properly. Moreover, the spray collapse was not represented very well, making the simulation set-up more suitable for less superheated sprays.

Effect of water content in ethanol on spray formation at subcooled and flash-boiling conditions

Direct-injection spark-ignition engines can be more sensitive to fuel type as the time available for spray formation and mixing is rather limited. The challenge is further complicated by fuel stock which includes a significant bio-derived component in some markets to manage fuel sustainability. The thermophysical properties of bio-components like ethanol differ markedly from typical hydrocarbons found in gasoline like iso-octane. Moreover, the production of anhydrous ethanol fuel involves separating water and ethanol by distillation and dehydration in an energy intensive process. This study presents results from an optical investigation into the spray formation process of hydrous ethanol fuels with 4–15% water content per volume in direct comparison to anhydrous ethanol and iso-octane. Injection tests were carried out with 20–110°C fuel temperature at 1.0 bar and 0.5 bar gas pressure to mimic thermodynamic conditions of cold-start and fully-warm engine at low-load and wide-open-throttle operation. High-speed spray imaging was conducted along with droplet sizing by phase Doppler anemometry. The thermophysical properties of all fuels, including vapour pressure, density, viscosity and surface tension, as well as distillation curves, were obtained over a range of temperatures and the respective Reynolds, Weber and Ohnesorge numbers were considered in the analysis. At 20°C iso-octane and anhydrous ethanol exhibited similar spray plume penetration, whilst increasing water content in ethanol reduced spray penetration. At higher temperatures up to 90°C, anhydrous ethanol showed lower penetration than iso-octane whilst the hydrous fuels still exhibited lower penetration than anhydrous ethanol in sequence of increasing water content. At 110°C, the ethanol fuels showed signs of plume merging and spray collapse, particularly at 0.5 bar gas pressure, with clear differences from iso-octane. The degree of plume merging and collapse was stronger with increased water content. The cone angle for the hydrous fuels was higher than that of pure ethanol, with the 4% water content ethanol that was close to the azeotropic point showing wider cone angle at temperatures higher than 20°C, being distinctly higher at 90°C. Iso-octane had consistently smaller droplet Sauter mean diameter than the ethanol fuels. As the percentage of water content in ethanol increased there was an increase in droplet sizes at all conditions.

Numerical Analysis of GDI Flash Boiling Sprays Using Different Fuels

Modeling the fuel injection process in modern gasoline direct injection engines plays a principal role in characterizing the in–cylinder mixture formation and subsequent combustion process. Flash boiling, which usually occurs when the fuel is injected into an ambient pressure below the saturation pressure of the liquid, is characterized by fast breakup and evaporation rates but could lead to undesired behaviors such as spray collapse, which significantly effects the mixture preparation. Four mono–component fuels have been used in this study with the aim of achieving various flashing behaviors utilizing the Spray G injector from the Engine Combustion Network (ECN). The numerical framework was based on a Lagrangian approach and was first validated for the baseline G1 condition. The model was compared with experimental vapor and liquid penetrations, axial gas velocity, droplet sizes and spray morphology and was then extended to the flash boiling condition for iso–octane, n–heptane, n–hexane, and n–pentane. A good agreement was achieved for most of the fuels in terms of spray development and shape, although the computed spray morphology of pentane was not able to capture the spray collapse. Overall, the adopted methodology is promising and can be used for engine combustion modeling with conventional and alternative fuels.

ECN Spray G injector: Numerical modelling of flash-boiling breakup and spray collapse

Flash boiling is the sudden change from liquid to vapour phase and in IC engines it typically occurs during the injection process with a gasoline direct injection (GDI) setup and when high fuel temperatures result in saturation pressures higher than the in-cylinder ones. The flash boiling, due to the complex evolution of a multi-phase flow and a rapid droplet vaporisation, promotes spray atomisation and affects significantly the spray structure and fuel–air mixture formation, with consequences for the engine performance and pollutant emissions. Hence, a deep knowledge of such phenomenon is required to improve the combustion process and reduce the pollutant production. The breakup mechanism of a superheated spray is quite different from a regular one, because it features the nucleation and growth of bubbles within liquid droplets. In this paper, an innovative flash-boiling breakup model was embedded in a Eulerian–Lagrangian two-phase solver using OpenFOAM library. The model assigns to the droplets a radial velocity component due to the bubble explosion, making it capable of reconstructing the spray expansion. The code was tested using experimental data of the ECN Spray G injector covering various thermodynamic conditions. The numerical model achieves a good level of agreement with the experimental data and, in particular, it is able to reconstruct the spray collapse. Besides, it provides useful information regarding parameters that are intrinsically difficult to measure experimentally.

Spray collapse in low-pressure injection systems operating in flash-boiling conditions

Spray collapse in low-pressure injection systems operating in flash-boiling conditions

Spray characterization of DMC and MeFo on multi-hole injectors for highly boosted DISI combustion engines

In the future, synthetic fuels could replace fossil fuels to minimize the CO2 emissions of combustion engines. Dimethyl carbonate (DMC) and methyl formate (MeFo) represent not only possible synthetic fuels but, due to their oxygen content, also have properties to reduce the pollutant emissions. For a good combustion process, the spray targeting and evaporation properties are important. Due to the less known injection behavior of DMC and MeFo, the spray characteristics were examined in a pressure chamber. The penetration depth, projected spray area, and spray angle were investigated at injection pressures of 100 and 200 bar, chamber pressures of 1 and 2.5 bar, and a temperature variation of up to 90°C for two different injector spray angles and flow rates in comparison with gasoline E5. The spray was recorded with a high-speed camera in a constant-volume chamber with a N2 environment. Both fuels showed a faster evaporation than E5 even with a higher injection mass due to their lower LHV. MeFo showed extreme spray collapse and flash boiling effects, which lead to even faster evaporation rates and higher penetration velocities.

Experimental study of sprays with isooctane, hexane, ethanol and their binary mixtures under different flash boiling intensities

This work investigated the behaviors of single-component and multi-component sprays under different flash boiling intensities. Isooctane, hexane, ethanol, isooctane-hexane, and isooctane-ethanol mixtures were used as test fuels. The pressure ratio of the ambient pressure over saturation pressure (Rp) was used as the indicator of the superheated degree. Macroscopic characteristics of the sprays under 10 different Rp (1.1 to 0.14) were investigated using Diffused Backlight Imaging (DBI). Droplet size, which revealed the spray microscopic characteristics, was also investigated using Phase Doppler Anemometry (PDA). The results showed that ambient pressure reduction led to higher flash boiling intensity, significant spray morphology changes, and smaller droplet size, regardless of the fuel type and blend ratios. Spray collapse was observed for all sprays once Rp dropped below 0.3. Spray collapse dramatically increased the liquid penetration length, expanded the near-field spray angle, and reduced the far-field angle for sprays with all the fuels. Fuel properties, such as the latent heat of vaporization, had significant impacts on droplet size distributions, thus altering the liquid penetration length and spray angles. Under similar Rp, sprays with high ethanol content generally had larger droplet sizes compared with other fuel sprays due to the high latent heat of vaporization. The larger droplets caused the high ethanol content sprays to be more resistant to the plume trajectory change, resulting in a smaller far-field spray angle variations with changing Rp. At Rp of 0.28, sprays with the similar latent heat of vaporization have similar droplet sizes, and droplet sizes at different radial locations were also similar to each other.

Numerical Investigation of Spray Collapse in GDI with OpenFOAM

During certain operating conditions in spark-ignited direct injection engines (GDI), the injected fuel will be superheated and begin to rapidly vaporize. Fast vaporization can be beneficial for fuel–oxidizer mixing and subsequent combustion, but it poses the risk of spray collapse. In this work, spray collapse is numerically investigated for a single hole and the spray G eight-hole injector of an engine combustion network (ECN). Results from a new OpenFOAM solver are first compared against results of the commercial CONVERGE software for single-hole injectors and validated. The results corroborate the perception that the superheat ratio Rp, which is typically used for the classification of flashing regimes, cannot describe spray collapse behavior. Three cases using the eight-hole spray G injector geometry are compared with experimental data. The first case is the standard G2 test case, with iso-octane as an injected fluid, which is only slightly superheated, whereas the two other cases use propane and show spray collapse behavior in the experiment. The numerical results support the assumption that the interaction of shocks due to the underexpanded vapor jet causes spray collapse. Further, the spray structures match well with experimental data, and shock interactions that provide an explanation for the observed phenomenon are discussed.

Study of spray structure under flash boiling conditions using 2phase-SLIPI

In gasoline engines, including conventional gasoline direct injection (GDI) engines and newly developed gasoline compression ignition (GCI) engines, flash boiling of the spray occurs during throttling or low load operations. Superheated fuel that is injected into the cylinder, where the gas pressure is lower than the fuel’s saturation vapor pressure, experiences a fast phase change. Plume interaction and spray collapse can occur as a consequence of flash boiling. The structure of flashing spray has not been well elucidated experimentally because of strong multiple-scattering effects in conventional laser sheet imaging due to illumination of out-of-laser-plane droplets. Here, the structured laser illumination planar imaging (SLIPI) is implemented for the first time to study flash boiling sprays. Both front-view and side-view cross-sections are examined to reveal spray behaviors during collapsing events. A comparison of the reconstructed 3D spray volume by SLIPI and conventional laser sheet imaging clearly shows the advantage of SLIPI in resolving the inner structure of the collapsed spray. The near-nozzle region on the injector axis is found to be hollow, indicating that spray collapsing occurs a bit downstream of the nozzle instead of immediately at the nozzle. This observation could not be obtained by conventional laser sheet imaging nor by diffused back illumination (DBI) techniques. In this work, the central tip observed in the 2D DBI image at Rp = 0.1 case has been proven to be not a ’central jet on injector axis’ formed due to radial collapse, but a longer projection on the image caused by stronger adjacent plume circumferential interactions.

Numerical study on spray collapse process of ECN spray G injector under flash boiling conditions

This work features a numerical study of the spray collapse process that occurs under flash-boiling, gasoline-direct-injection conditions. The Engine Combustion Network’s Spray G injector was modeled, and iso-octane, n-hexane, and propane were used as fuels with the goal to investigate fuel property effects. The development of individual jets and jet-to-jet interaction were analyzed to reveal the physical mechanisms of spray collapse. The results agreed qualitatively well with the experimental data of propane available from the literature and the predictions revealed the model’s ability to capture the near-nozzle shock structures witnessed in the experiments. Simulations showed that the flow development of flashing sprays was strongly tied with the fuel properties. Specifically, under-expanded jets were not observed with iso-octane due to the fuel’s low vapor pressure. In the case of n-hexane, the jets were under-expanded, and a low-pressure core was observed inside the jets due to the flow expansion. With propane, the very strong expansion caused the flow to become transonic and generate a unique shock structure near the nozzle exit. The shock structure revealed the formation of primary shock cells within the jets and secondary shock cells induced by jet-to-jet interaction. Based on the results, the spray collapse under flash boiling conditions was mainly attributed to two effects, i.e., the decrease in pressure at the spray center induced by the low-pressure cores inside and between the jets, and the isolation effect due to the jet-to-jet interaction which contributed to maintain the pressure differential between the spray center and the ambient.

Low-Pressure Injection of Water and Urea-Water Solution in Flash-Boiling Conditions

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">The flash-boiling effect in sprays has been shown to have the capability to decrease droplet diameters and spray penetration, as well as improve the vaporization process in gasoline direct injection systems. It has also been shown that in certain conditions, the effect on spray penetration can be the opposite. Under a high degree of overheating the spray collapse effect may appear and lead to increased spray penetration - flare flash boiling. Moreover, when the boiling is already strongly present in the nozzle it may lead to flow choking. Thus, the process is difficult to be controlled. While most studies so far have focused on high-pressure direct injection systems, we investigate the process in a low-pressure system to verify if the effects observed in high-pressure systems will be similar. The study was performed on two liquids, water and a urea-water solution, to limit any individual substance’s effects on the results and to improve the practical importance of the study. The results showed no increased penetration in any of the flash-boiling cases, although at the highest considered temperatures the two plumes tend to form a single spray cloud. Although the characteristics were similar for both studied liquids, in certain measurement conditions the differences in almost all analysed spray parameters were considerable. Moreover, the study has shown that the flash-boiling effect can be considered as an effective way to improve jet and droplet break-up while avoiding a pressure increase in low-pressure injection systems.</div></div>

Spray characteristics of direct injection injectors with different nozzle configurations under flash-boiling conditions

This investigation utilized four gasoline direct injection (GDI) injectors with different nozzle lengths and step hole diameters to analyze the influences of nozzle structure on the superheated plume and spray collapse under different superheat degrees. The spray behaviors of were recorded by using high-speed shadowgraphs. In addition, the spray concentration distribution, spray development, and spray swelling characteristics under different superheat conditions were analyzed. The experimental results showed that hole length and step hole diameter affected the widths of the spray plumes, which then affected the spray characteristics. Wider spray plumes enhance plume interactions and promote reduced spray penetration. This causes spray to enter the transition regime at a lower degree of superheat. In addition, the transition regime exhibits better spray characteristics than the subcooled and flare flash boiling regimes. Injector with smaller hole length and larger step hole diameter exhibits stronger adaptability while utilizing the remarkable spray characteristics in the transition regime, owing to the greater length of the spray transition regime.

Optical investigation of flash boiling and its effect on in-cylinder combustion for butanol isomers and iso-octane

Performance of a gasoline direct injection engine significantly depends on the fuel injection phenomenon. It has been shown that variation in the fuel thermo-physical properties and in-cylinder thermodynamic conditions can adversely affect engine performance. Spray collapse due to flash boiling is the consequence of such varying in-cylinder thermodynamics. It has also been observed that gasoline direct injection engines have higher particulate matter emissions compared to port fuel injection engines. One of the possible reasons for this observation may be fuel impingement on the piston head and spray collapse at high fuel injector temperature. In the present work, experiments have been performed to understand spray characteristics under flash boiling conditions and ultimately its effect on in-cylinder combustion quality for the three different fuels: n-butanol, iso-butanol and iso-octane. To mimic in-cylinder conditions, hot fuel was introduced inside an optically accessible engine. It was observed that fuel temperature and their thermo-physical properties have a significant effect on piston head wetting and pool fire on the piston top. Butanol isomers showed significant reduction in sooty combustion with increase in fuel temperature. However, iso-octane showed higher wall wetting at elevated fuel temperature due to spray collapse.

Experimental study on flash-boiling spray structure of multi-hole gasoline direct injection injector in a constant volume chamber

The macroscopic and microscopic characteristics of flash-boiling spray were experimentally investigated with various optical measurement techniques. The effects of ambient pressure and fuel temperature on flash-boiling characteristics in multi-hole gasoline direct injection injector were analyzed. The analysis was focused on the spray structure and atomization droplet size distributions. In order to increase the understanding of the flash-boiling spray targeting, three injectors with different spray patterns were investigated under strong flash-boiling condition. The results show that ambient pressure and fuel temperature have significant influence on flash boiling. Both lower ambient pressure and higher fuel temperature could accelerate the flash-boiling process. For the macroscopic characteristics, similar influences could be found with the ambient pressure decreased by 0.4 bar and the fuel temperature increased by 10°C. Further, significant difference could be found within cold-jet spray and strong flash-boiling spray, such as the spatial structure. The spray structure always turns from hollow cone into solid when flash boiling occurs. With a higher fuel superheat degree, the spray droplet distribution moves toward smaller sizes and let the larger droplets reduce due to the promotion of atomization. For the strong flash-boiling spray, the Sauter mean diameter has decreased by 50% compared with cold-jet spray. There is a corresponding relationship between collapsed flash-boiling spray target and weighted geometric center of the injector. Spray collapse could be avoided by increasing the plume distance.

Characteristics of spray and wall wetting under flash-boiling and non-flashing conditions at varying ambient pressures

Flash-boiling in Direct Injection Spark Ignition (DISI) engines is very common. Flash-boiling atomization is one of the most effective ways to generate fully developed atomization and homogeneous mixtures. However, despite the positive effects of flash-boiling, this phenomenon may also lead to negative effects such as longer spray penetration, piston wall wetting, and increased soot emissions, due to increased interactions among the spray plumes which can result in spray collapse and the aforementioned problems. In this study, high-speed direct photography and Refractive Index Matching (RIM) were utilized to investigate the characteristics of n-hexane sprays and impingement using a constant volume vessel. Under low-pressure conditions, flash-boiling drives the collapsed spray to a quick impingement and small spray area. Through the volume distribution of the liquid fuel film acquired by RIM and the spray outline derived from the morphology of images, it was again confirmed that the spray collapse took place not only at a high degree of superheating, but also under conditions of high ambient pressure without flash-boiling. The spray collapse under high pressure conditions is characterized by a late-phase impingement and large spray-swept area. Varying fuel-film behavior was observed following spray-impingement. Under high-density conditions with spray collapse, the fuel film evaporated slowly after the injection, but the higher ambient pressures reduced the total impingement. At low-density conditions with flash-boiling, the resultant fuel-films evaporated more quickly, and reduced ambient pressures reduced the total fuel-film volumes, although flash-boiling could not completely inhibit spray impingement.

Study of spray collapse phenomenon at flash boiling conditions using simultaneous front and side view imaging

Flash boiling has become a topic of interest to researchers due to its potential of achieving good fuel atomization and negative influence on GDI engine emissions when spray collapses and spray-wall impingement exists. Under flash boiling conditions, the accompanying spray collapse phenomenon and plume interaction are not clearly elucidated. Simultaneous side view diffused back illumination (DBI) and front view Mie-scattering were implemented in this work to capture transient plume to plume interaction of iso-octane fuel spray from a 10 hole gasoline direct injection (GDI) injector at flash boiling conditions. Fuel temperature and ambient gas pressure were varied in a wide range to cover collapse, transitional and non-flashing regimes. Two new criteria named ‘spray collapse percentage’, defined based on the front view Mie-scattering technique and ‘optical thickness’ based on the side view DBI technique, were developed for classification of different spray regimes. These two criteria distinguish the collapsing and transitional regimes well from the non-collapsing regime compared to other criteria used in the literature.

Analysis of the interaction of Spray G and in-cylinder flow in two optical engines for late gasoline direct injection

An investigation of the interaction between the in-cylinder flow and the spray topology in two spray-guided direct injection optical engines is reported. The bulk flow field in the combustion chamber is characterized using particle image velocimetry. Geometrical parameters such as the axial penetration and the spray angle of the liquid spray are measured using Mie scatter imaging and/or diffuse back-illumination. The measured parameters are compared with data from a constant volume chamber available in the literature. For a late injection strategy, the so-called ECN Spray G standard condition, the mean values of the spray penetration do not seem to be significantly perturbed by the in-cylinder flow motion until the plumes approach the piston surface. However, spray probability maps reveal that cycle-to-cycle fluctuations of the spatial distribution of the liquid spray are affected by the magnitude of the in-cylinder flow. Particle image velocimetry during injection shows that the flow field in the vicinity of the spray plumes is heavily influenced by air entrainment, and that an upward flow in-between spray plumes develops. Consistent with previous research that demonstrated the importance of the latter flow structure for the prevention of spray collapse, it is found that increased in-cylinder flow magnitudes due to increased intake valve lifts or engine speeds enhance the spray-shape stability. Compared with cases without injection, the influence of the spray on the in-cylinder flow field is still noticeable approximately 2.5 ms after the start of injection.