Study of mass and momentum transfer in diesel sprays based on X-ray mass distribution measurements and on a theoretical derivation

In this paper, a research aimed at quantifying mass and momentum transfer in the near-nozzle field of diesel sprays injected into stagnant ambient air is reported. The study combines X-ray measurements for two different nozzles and axial positions, which provide mass distributions in the spray, with a theoretical model based on momentum flux conservation, which was previously validated. This investigation has allowed the validation of Gaussian profiles for local fuel concentration and velocity near the nozzle exit, as well as the determination of Schmidt number at realistic diesel spray conditions. This information could be very useful for those who are interested in spray modeling, especially at high-pressure injection conditions.     

Dynamics of heavy particles in two swirling jets

We report flow visualisations and laser Doppler anemometry (LDA) velocity measurements in the near field of two swirling jets. The Reynolds number based on jet diameter and bulk velocity at the nozzle exit is 1.4 × 10⁵. In the first jet, a small recirculation region is formed around the jet axis, while, in the second, the streamwise velocity remains positive and overshoots near the jet centre. In both cases, flow visualisations show that the vortex core of the jets is depleted of seeding particles. By using time-averaged distributions of the streamwise and tangential velocities measured at the nozzle outlet, the dynamics of the particles is simulated, by integrating their simplified equations of motion. The particles trajectory thus computed agrees well with that observed in the flow visualisations. Although the turbulence intensity is substantially different in the core of the two jets, its effect on the seeding concentration is localised near the edge of the core.     

Laser beam deviation as a local density probe

In axisymmetric flows, we show that the laser beam deviation technique can be associated with an Abel inversion calculation in order to give the local density and its gradients. We report density profile measurements in the different regions (zone of silence and barrel shock) of nitrogen and argon supersonic free jets near the nozzle exit. Three different nozzle geometries have been tested at different stagnation pressures. Results are compared to calculations obtained by the method of characteristics.     

Numerical research of diesel spray and atomization coupled cavitation by Large Eddy Simulation (LES) under high injection pressure

A special spray model is applied to study the spray behavior with high injection pressure and micro-hole nozzle. To reveal the cavitation in diesel nozzle and its influence on spray and atomization, the Large Eddy Simulation (LES) turbulence model is adopted to detect the cavitation, and then the special spray model coupling the cavitation is build. From research results, three important conclusions can be drawn. Firstly, the cavitation flow can raise the effective velocity at the nozzle exit and such effect become even more obvious with higher injection pressure, e.g.180 MPa. Secondly, the applied spray model is in good agreement with the spray characteristics and images obtained from the EFS8400 spray test platform. Thirdly, the cavitation with high injection pressure and micro-hole nozzle can increase the spray cone angle and reduce the spray penetration; the cavitation intensity has a great impact on the spray velocity field and vorticity intensity, especially at the initial spray field under the condition of high injection pressure.     

A gas jet superposition model for CFD modeling of group-hole nozzle sprays

In the present study, a jet superposition modeling approach is explored to model group-hole nozzle sprays, in which multiple spray jets interact with each other. An equation to estimate the merged jet velocity from each of the individual jets was derived based on momentum conservation for equivalent gas jets. Diverging and converging group-hole nozzles were also considered. The model was implemented as a sub-grid-scale submodel in a Lagrangian Drop–Eulerian Gas CFD model for spray predictions. Spray tip penetration predicted using the present superposition model was validated against experimental results for parallel, diverging and converging group-hole nozzles as a function of the angle between the two holes at various injection and ambient pressures. The results show that spray tip penetration decreases as the group hole diverging or converging angle increases. However, the spray penetration of the converging group-hole nozzle arrangement is more sensitive to the angle between the two holes compared to diverging nozzle because the radial momentum component is converted to axial momentum during the jet–jet impingement process in the converging group-hole nozzle case. The modeling results also indicate that for converging group-hole nozzles the merged sprays become ellipsoidal in cross-section far downstream of the nozzle exit with larger converging angles, indicating increased air entrainment.     

A study of the flow characteristics in micro-abrasive jets

An experimental study of particle velocities in micro-abrasive jets by using the particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique is presented. It has been found that the particle jet flow has a nearly linear expansion downstream. The particle velocities increase with air pressure, and the increasing rate increases with nozzle diameter within the range considered. The instantaneous velocity profile of the particle flow field in terms of the particle velocity distribution along the axial and radial directions of the jets is discussed. For the axial profile in the jet centerline downstream, there exists an extended acceleration stage, a transition stage, and a deceleration stage. For the radial velocity profiles, a relatively flat shape is observed at a jet cross-section near the nozzle exit. Mathematical models for the particle velocities in the air jet are then developed. It is shown that the results from the models agree well with experimental data in both the variation trend and magnitude.     

Drying performance and surface forces of a pair of impinging radial jets

The drying performance and the forces generated by a pair of radial jets impinging on a plane surface are studied experimentally and compared with a pair of in-line (axial) jets. The reattachment rings of the radial jets are visualized by liquid-crystal-thermography. The results of the drying experiments are presented in terms of Sherwoodnumbers. The results of the surface force measurements are presented in terms of force coefficients. The effects of flow exit angle, exit velocity, horizontal nozzle spacing and vertical nozzle to surface distance on mass transfer and net surface force are discussed. Results show that drying performance of a pair of radial jets with an exit angle towards the surface of 10° is 18% higher than that of a pair of in-line jets. The surface force of impinging radial jets depends on the exit angle. A global pressure force on the surface is typical for jets directed towards the surface, while a global lifting force is found when the jet is initially directed away from the surface. Radial jets have a high potential in drying applications for force sensitive products and when high drying rates and/or small suction forces are of interest.     

UV-mediated coalescence and mixing of inkjet printed drops

In the present study, the characteristics of supersonic rectangular microjets are investigated experimentally using molecular tagging velocimetry. The jets are discharged from a convergent–divergent rectangular nozzle whose exit height is 500 μm. The jet Mach number is set to 2.0 for all tested jets, and the Reynolds number Re is altered from 154 to 5,560 by changing the stagnation pressure. The experimental results reveal that jet velocity decays principally due to abrupt jet spreading caused by jet instability for relatively high Reynolds numbers (Re > ~450). The results also reveal that the jet rapidly decelerates to a subsonic speed near the nozzle exit for a low Reynolds number (Re = 154), although the jet does not spread abruptly; i.e., a transition in velocity decay processes occurs as the Reynolds number decreases. A supersonic core length is estimated from the streamwise distribution of the centerline velocity, and the length is then normalized by the nozzle exit height and plotted against the Reynolds number. As a result, it is found that the normalized supersonic core length attains a maximum value at a certain Reynolds number near which the transition in the velocity decay process occurs.     

Numerical Analysis of the Impact of the Interior Nozzle Geometry on Low Mach Number Jet Acoustics

The flow and acoustic fields of subsonic turbulent hot jets exhausting from three divergent nozzles at a Mach number M=0.12 based on the nozzle exit velocity are conducted using a hybrid CFD-CAA method. The flow field is computed by highly resolved large-eddy simulations (LES) and the acoustic field is computed by solving the acoustic perturbation equations (APE) whose acoustic source terms are determined by the LES. The LES of the computational domain includes the interior of the nozzle geometry. Synthetic turbulence is prescribed at the inlet of the nozzle to mimic the exit conditions downstream of the last turbine stage. The LES is based on hierarchically refined Cartesian meshes, where the nozzle wall boundaries are resolved by a conservative cut-cell method. The APE solution is determined on a block structured mesh. Three nozzle geometries of increasing complexity are considered, i.e., the flow and acoustic fields of a clean geometry without any built-in components, a nozzle with a centerbody, and a nozzle with a centerbody plus struts are computed. Spectral distributions of the LES based turbulent fluctuated quantities inside the nozzle and further downstream are analyzed in detail. The noise sources in the near field are noticeably influenced by the nozzle built-in components. The centerbody nozzle increases the overall sound pressure level (OASPL) in the near field with respect to the clean nozzle and the centerbody-plus-strut nozzle reduces it compared to the centerbody nozzle due to the increased turbulent mixing. The centerbody perturbed nozzle configurations generate a remarkable spectral peak at S t=0.56 which also occurs in the APE findings in the near field region. This tone is generated by large scale vortical structures shed from the centerbody. The analysis of the individual noise sources shows that the entropy term possesses the highest acoustic contribution in the sideline direction whereas the vortex sound source dominates the downstream acoustics.     

FORCE FIELDS ON INVISCID,SLENDER, ANNULAR LIQUID JETS

Regular perturbation expansions are used to analyse the fluid dynamics of unsteady, inviscid, slender, thin, incompressible (constant density), axisymmetric, upward and downward, annular liquid jets subjected to non-homogeneous, conservative body forces when both the annular jets are very thin and the gases enclosed by and surrounding the jet are dynamically passive. Both inertia- and capillarity-dominated annular jets are considered. It is shown that, for inertia-dominated jets, closure of the leading-order equations is achieved at second order in the perturbation parameter, which is the slenderness ratio, whereas closure is achieved at first order for capillarity-dominated jets. The steady leading-order equations are solved numerically by means of both an adaptive finite difference method which maps the curvilinear geometry of the jet onto a unit square and a fourth-order-accurate Runge–Kutta technique. It is shown that the fluid dynamics of steady, annular liquid jets is very sensitive to the Froude and Weber numbers and nozzle exit angle in the presence of non-homogeneous, conservative body forces. For upward jets with inwardly or axially directed velocities at the nozzle exit the effect of the non-homogeneous, conservative body forces is to increase the leading-order axial velocity component, decrease the jet's mean radius and move the stagnation point downstream. For downward jets with radially outward velocity at the nozzle exit the axial velocity component decreases monotonically as the magnitude of the non-homogeneous, conservative body forces is increased.     

A detailed experimental investigation of well-defined,turbulent evaporating spray jets of acetone

This paper aims at investigating the detailed structure of turbulent non-reacting dilute spray flows using advanced laser diagnostics. A simple spray jet nozzle is designed to produce a two-phase slender shear flow in a co-flowing air stream with well-defined boundary conditions. The carrier flow is made intentionally simple and easy to model so that the focus can be placed on the important aspects of droplet dispersion and evaporation, as well as turbulence–droplet interactions. Phase Doppler interferometry is employed to record droplet quantities, while planar laser-induced fluorescence imaging is applied separately to obtain acetone vapour data. Measurements are conducted for four acetone spray jets in air at several axial stations starting from the nozzle exit. The combined liquid and vapour mass fluxes of acetone integrated across the jet at downstream locations agree satisfactorily with the total mass flow rate of acetone injected.     

Supersonic liquid jets: Their generation and shock wave characteristics

The generation of high-speed liquid (water and diesel fuel) jets in the supersonic range using a vertical single-stage powder gun is described. The effect of projectile velocity and mass on the jet velocity is investigated experimentally. Jet exit velocities for a set of nozzle inner profiles (e.g. straight cone with different cone angles, exponential, hyperbolic etc.) are compared. The optimum condition to achieve the maximum jet velocity and hence better atomization and mixing is then determined. The visual images of supersonic diesel fuel jets (velocity about 2000 m/s) were obtained by the shadowgraph method. This provides better understanding of each stage of the generation of the jets and makes the study of their characteristics and the potential for auto-ignition possible. In the experiments, a pressure relief section has been used to minimize the compressed air wave ahead of the projectile. To clarify the processes inside the section, additional experiments have been performed with the use of the shadowgraph method, showing the projectile travelling inside and leaving the pressure relief section at a velocity of about 1100 m/s. Received 23 January 2001 / Accepted 2 July 2001     

Dynamic characteristics of pulsed supersonic fuel sprays

This paper describes the dynamic characteristics of pulsed, supersonic liquid fuel sprays or jets injected into ambient air. Simple, single hole nozzles were employed with the nozzle sac geometries being varied. Different fuel types, diesel fuel, bio-diesel, kerosene, and gasoline were used to determine the effects of fuel properties on the spray characteristics. A vertical two-stage light gas gun was employed as a projectile launcher to provide a high velocity impact to produce the liquid jet. The injection pressure was around 0.88–1.24 GPa in all cases. The pulsed, supersonic fuel sprays were visualized by using a high-speed video camera and shadowgraph method. The spray tip penetration and velocity attenuation and other characteristics were examined and are described here. An instantaneous spray tip velocity of 1,542 m/s (Mach number 4.52) was obtained. However, this spray tip velocity can be sustained for only a very short period (a few microseconds). It then attenuates very quickly. The phenomenon of multiple high frequency spray pulses generated by a single shot impact and the changed in the angle of the shock structure during the spray flight, which had already been observed in previous studies, is again noted. Multiple shock waves from the conical nozzle spray were also clearly captured.      

Visualization of high-speed gas jets and their airblast sprays of cross-injected liquid

A planar and instantaneous visualization study of high-speed gas jets and their airblast sprays was performed to qualitatively examine the different atomization performances of different gas nozzles. For the visualization of high-speed gas jets (with no liquid injected), Nd:YAG pulsed laser sheets imaged the clustered vapor molecules in the Rayleigh range (d?λ), condensed from the natural humidity during the isentropic gas expansion through a nozzle. This method visualized both underexpanded sonic gas jets from a converging nozzle (SN-Type) and overexpanded supersonic gas jets from a converging-diverging nozzle (CD-Type). When liquid is cross-injected, the same laser sheet images the spray droplets of relatively large sizes (d?λ). The present visualization results show that the SN-Type nozzle develops a wider spray than the CD-Type nozzle, quite probably because the SN-Type nozzle has a wider gas jet (in the absence of liquid) than the CD-Type. Also, the wider spray of the SN-Type nozzle lowers the probability of droplet coalescence and generates finer sprays compared to the CD-Type nozzle. These visualization results qualitatively agree with the previous quantitative finding of the different atomization characteristics of the two types of nozzles (Park et al. 1996).     

Vortex Behaviour and Velocity Characteristics of Jets Issuing from Hybrid Inclined Elliptic Nozzles

An experimental study on elliptic nozzles with hybrid flat- and inclined-sections is reported here. The hybrid flat and inclined sections are imposed along either the major- or minor-plane of the nozzles (HIN?A and B nozzles respectively). For HIN?A, results show prevalent pairings between adjacent vortex filaments and induced vortex-loops in the immediate vicinity of the flat-section to produce coalesced vortex roll-ups. Once they detach entirely from the nozzle, they proceed to undergo flow changes resembling that of conventional elliptic jets. HIN?B also leads to near-field vortex pairings but produce discrete inclined vortex roll-ups instead, with accompanying delay in rib structure formations. The roles of induced vortex-loops are significantly more limited in the present elliptic HIN than circular HIN investigated previously, due to the dominance of elliptic braid vortices. HIN?A produces significantly larger centerline velocity decay, as well as higher turbulence levels in the near vicinity of the nozzle exit. Vectoring of axial jet momentum is more apparent for HIN?B, where cross-stream entrainment is also relatively larger. Half-jet width results also demonstrate that both nozzle types eventually produce elliptic jets that undergo axis-switching. Lastly, momentum thickness results suggest that the present nozzle lip-modifications significantly enhance mixing characteristics along the plane upon which they are imposed in both HIN?A and B.     

Three-dimensional flow visualization in the wake of a miniature axial-flow hydrokinetic turbine

This paper examines the velocity profile of fuel issuing from a high-pressure single-orifice diesel injector. Velocities of liquid structures were determined from time-resolved ultrafast shadow images, formed by an amplified two-pulse laser source coupled to a double-frame camera. A statistical analysis of the data over many injection events was undertaken to map velocities related to spray formation near the nozzle outlet as a function of time after start of injection. These results reveal a strong asymmetry in the liquid profile of the test injector, with distinct fast and slow regions on opposite sides of the orifice. Differences of ～100 m/s can be observed between the ‘fast’ and ‘slow’ sides of the jet, resulting in different atomization conditions across the spray. On average, droplets are dispersed at a greater distance from the nozzle on the ‘fast’ side of the flow, and distinct macrostructure can be observed under the asymmetric velocity conditions. The changes in structural velocity and atomization behavior resemble flow structures which are often observed in the presence of string cavitation produced under controlled conditions in scaled, transparent test nozzles. These observations suggest that widely used common-rail supply configurations and modern injectors can potentially generate asymmetric interior flows which strongly influence diesel spray morphology. The velocimetry measurements presented in this work represent an effective and relatively straightforward approach to identify deviant flow behavior in real diesel sprays, providing new spatially resolved information on fluid structure and flow characteristics within the shear layers on the jet periphery.     

On the spread of rectangular jets

Results are presented of some characteristic features of turbulent free jets issuing from rectangular exits having different geometries and small aspect ratios. Emphasis is placed on the measurement in the flow field near the exit. The measured quantities include mean velocity, mean temperature and stream-wise turbulence intensity. It is found that the growth and decay of the spanwise saddle-backed profile for temperature is different from that for velocity, and that the streamwise turbulence intensity distribution shows a remarkable change according to aspect ratio, exit shape and exit velocity.This paper was presented at the Ninth Symposium on Turbulence, University of Missouri-Rolla, October 1-3, 1984     

The spray characteristics of a pressure-swirl injector with various exit plane tilts

The gasoline spray characteristics of a pressure-swirl injector were investigated with various exit plane tilts. The analysis focused on the correlation between tilt angle and flow angle. Mie-scattering technique and phase Doppler anemometry were employed to analyze the macroscopic spray development and droplet size distribution of the spray. An analytical method for mass flux estimation was applied to understand the velocity distribution at the nozzle exit. The results showed that the spray shape and velocity distribution of the spray were more asymmetrical at high tilt angles. In particular, an opened hollow cone spray was formed when the tilt angle is greater than the complementary flow angle. The pressure drop inside the spray, one of the crucial factors for the swirl spray collapse at various surrounding conditions, was attenuated in this opened hollow cone spray since the pressure inside the spray was assimilated to the surrounding air pressure. The spray collapse at high fuel temperature and back pressure conditions did not appear when the tilt angle is larger than the complementary flow angle due to the reduced pressure drop inside the spray. However, tilt angle should be optimized to fulfill the requirements of spray robustness and avoid the locally rich area. The droplet size of 70° tilted nozzle spray shows a value similar to that of the original swirl spray in the plane that includes nozzle axis and the major axis of exit surface ellipse (Major axis plane) while it shows an increased value in the plane that includes nozzle axis and the minor axis of exit surface ellipse (Minor axis plane).     

Density distribution in a supersonic jet exhausting into vacuum from a nozzle with an inclined exit

Fairly effective methods have been developed to calculate axisymmetric jets of an inviscid perfect gas exhausting into vacuum, and approximations have also been obtained for the density field in such jets at large distances from the nozzle exit (see, for example, [1—3] and the bibliography in them). If the plane of the exit of the nozzle is not perpendicular to its axis, the flow in the jet is three dimensional. In a number of cases one can take into account the influence of the inclined exit with sufficient accuracy by a correction in the density distribution. An expression for such correction is given in the present paper. It is obtained on the basis of earlier calculations of the author [4], in which flow from a source was specified at the nozzle exit.