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Since the amount of dissolved gas in fuels is an important quantity for the description of aeration in injection nozzles, this paper presents Bunsen absorption coefficients for different conventional and bio-hybrid fuels and their effect on nozzle flow phenomena. Bio-hybrid fuels can be produced both on the basis of biomass and with the help of regeneratively generated electrical energy. In contrast to previous work, the Bunsen coefficient was determined for a wide pressure range from approximately 10 MPa to 32.5 MPa. In fact, some of the fuels considered here were never before objects of investigation in terms of their solubility properties. In this work, large differences regarding the Bunsen absorption coefficient between a conventional fuel and a bio-hybrid fuel were observed. For determining the solubility of the fuels, a manometric-volumetric method was used.

The influence of in-cylinder flow on the propagation of 2-Butanone and Ethanol sprays is studied. To solely evaluate the interaction of air flow and fuel, high-speed Mie-Scattering Imaging of hollow cone sprays is conducted both in a single-cylinder optical engine with tumble movement and in a pressure vessel with negligible air flow. The direct comparison reveals an improved spray propagation of 2-Butanone due to the engine’s air flow. The lower viscosity of 2-Butanone causes an enhanced jet breakup compared to Ethanol such that the spray consists of more and smaller droplets. Small droplets possess a lower momentum, which allows the droplets to be more efficiently transported by the air flow. Consequently, the fuel distribution across the cylinder is enhanced. As the liquid fuel is distributed to a larger volume, improved convection accelerates evaporation.

Targeted fuel blending is a known method to improve the performance of an automotive engine. Two candidates for a biofuel blend are the linear C8H18O isomers 1-octanol and di-n-butyl ether (DNBE). Both fuels feature an increased amount of oxygen that reduces soot emissions. However, physical properties of both fuels differ significantly and thus, a different type of spray mixing and combustion is expected: The low reactivity of 1-octanol causes a long ignition delay enabling a better mixture homogenization, but also causes HC and CO emissions. DNBE in contrary is highly volatile, has a short ignition time and thus can act as an ignition booster for 1-octanol without losing positive effects concerning emissions. In this work a spray study is performed for blends of 1-octanol and DNBE. Measurements are conducted under diesel-like engine conditions with an 8-hole piezo injector. High-speed Schlieren and Mie scattering techniques are used for spray visualizations.

In this study the interaction of diesel sprays with thin oil films is optically investigated under engine relevant conditions. Oil films of a few micrometer thickness are generated using a novel high-pressure spin coater. The behavior of spray impingement on a dry and a wetted wall is compared using high-speed visualizations, interferometry and Phase Doppler Anemometry. On this basis, the influence of film presence before interaction on macroscopic spray properties, droplet diameters, droplet velocities and film thickness after interaction is studied.

In the GDI engines, the accuracy of the numerical results and their contribution to the design analysis and optimization tasks strongly depend on the predictive capabilities of the physical processes. While most of the studies apply RANS concept, in this contribution LES methodology is suggested as suitable unsteady approach for simulating spray dynamics including GDI processes using KIVA-4 CFD-code. A comprehensive model is integrated in a Eulerian-Lagrangian framework allowing to describe the spray evolving from the injector nozzle and propagating within the combustion chamber. It includes sub-models to account for various relevant sub-processes. The atomization is described using combined primary and secondary atomization sub-models. Instead of performing costly level set method or VOF technique, a LISA-based sub-model is applied for the primary atomization. The secondary atomization is modeled by a TAB model.

Spray penetration and mixture formation in GDI engines are crucial to a reliable ignition and the subsequent combustion. For the prediction of the mixture formation process, computational fluid dynamic simulations are applied. Therefore, details about the nozzle exit conditions are essential, either as boundary conditions to be set, or to validate the numerical results. This paper presents experimental results on the influence of boundary conditions on the spray structure at the nozzle exit of a GDI injector. The injector investigated is an outwardly opening piezo injector, generating a hollow cone spray with a string structure. The distribution of the strings (the so-called "string structure") is needed for the starting conditions of the computational fluid dynamic simulations, as the origin of the strings is unresolved so far.

One fundamental subprocess for the utilization of alternative fuels for automotive applications is the in-cylinder mixture formation and therefore the fuel injection, which largely affects the combustion efficiency of internal combustion engines. This study analyzes the influence of the physical properties of various model-fuels on atomization and spray propagation at temperatures and pressures matching the operating conditions of today's gasoline engines. The experiments were carried out using an outwardly opening, piezo-driven gasoline injector. In order to cover a wide range of potential fuels the following liquids were investigated: Alcohols (Ethanol, Butanol and Decanol), alkanes (Iso-Octane, Dodecane and Heptane) and one furane (Tetrahydrofurfuryl Alcohol). The macroscopic spray propagation of the fuels was investigated using shadowgraphy. For complementary spray characterization droplet sizes and velocities were measured using Phase-Doppler Anemometry.

An experimental study on the interaction of sprays from clustered orifices is presented. Droplet size and velocity information has been gained by means of Phase Doppler Anemometry for different nozzle configurations varying the diverging opening angle between clustered sprays from 0° to 15°. These nozzles were investigated under high-pressure (50 bar) and high-temperature (800 K) conditions in a pressure chamber and the results are compared to two standard nozzles with flow rates corresponding either to the flow rate of the cluster nozzle configuration or half of the flow rate of this configuration. Two injection pressures, 600 bar and 1100 bar, were used to investigate all nozzles. This investigation completes the characterization of sprays from the cluster nozzles presented in an earlier work. Findings obtained therein were used to choose the measurement procedure for the present investigation and also to determine the spray width in order to obtain the spray angle.

In present GDI engines, multiple injection strategies are often employed for engine cold start mixture formation. In the future, these strategies may also be used to control the combustion process, and to prevent misfiring or high emission levels. While the processes occurring during individual injections of GDI injectors have been investigated by a number of researchers, this paper concentrates on the interactions of multiple injection events. Even though multiple injection strategies are already applied in most GDI engines, the impact of the first injection event on the second injection event has not been analyzed in detail yet. Different optical measurement techniques are used in order to investigate the interaction of the two closely timed injection events, as well as the effect of dwell time and the in-cylinder conditions. The injector investigated is a GDI piezo injector with an outwardly opening needle.

One of the fundamental topics in the design of new injection systems for Dl Diesel engines is to decrease the soot emissions. A promising approach to minimize soot production are injection nozzles having clustered holes. The basic idea of Cluster Configuration (CC) nozzles is to prevent a fuel rich area in the center of the flame where most of the soot is produced. For this purpose each hole of a conventional nozzle is replaced by two smaller holes, which are sized to yield the same flow rate. The basic strategy of the cluster nozzles is to provide a better primary break up, and therefore a better mixture formation, caused by the smaller nozzle holes, but a comparable penetration length of the vapor phase due to merging of the spray plumes.

The objective of this research is to investigate the behavior of interacting sprays, so-called spray clusters, under typical Diesel combustion conditions. Visualizations and Phase-Doppler Anemometry are employed to characterize the macro- and microscopic spray properties. A significant effect of the cluster geometry on spray formation is noticed. Direct spray-spray interaction is found in all cases, with varying intensity depending on the included angle of the orifices within a cluster. The sprays from all investigated cluster nozzles penetrated significantly slower than those of a comparable conventional nozzle. The stability of the sprays is found to be very sensitive to the orientation of the cluster. Depending on this parameter the sprays from one cluster penetrate very similar or exhibit significant instabilities, especially at lower injection pressures.