Simulation of the Internal Flow and Cavitation of Hydrous Ethanol-Gasoline Fuels in a Multi-Hole Direct Injector 2022-01-0501

Hydrous ethanol not only has the advantages of high-octane number and valuable oxygen content, but also reduce the energy consumption in the production process. However, little literature investigated the internal flow and cavitation of hydrous ethanol-gasoline fuels in the multi-hole direct injector. In this simulation, a two-phase fuel flow model in injector is established based on the multi-fluid model of Euler-Euler method, and the accuracy of model is verified. On the basis of this model, the flow of different hydrous ethanol-gasoline blends is calculated under different injection conditions, and the cavitation, flow rate, and velocity at the outlet of the nozzle are predicted. Meanwhile, the influence of temperature and back pressure on the flow is also analyzed. The results show that the use of hydrous ethanol reduces the flow rate, compared with the velocity of E0, that of E10w, E20w, E50w, E85w, and E100w decreases by 10%, 12.9%, 17.6%, 20%, and 23.5%, respectively. Moreover, with the use of hydrous ethanol, the porosity increases first and then decreases, and the turbulent kinetic energy reduces by 27%. In addition, the velocity of fuel flow increases, cavitation strengthens (increases by 12.5%), and turbulent kinetic energy distribution improves. Nevertheless, with increase in fuel injection back pressure, both of the flow velocity (reduces by about 25%), cavitation, and turbulent kinetic energy decrease.