Visualization of soot formation from evaporating fuel films by laser-induced fluorescence and incandescence

Late-evaporating liquid fuel wall-films are considered a major source of soot in spark-ignition direct-injection (SIDI) engines. In this study, a direct-injection model experiment was developed to visualize soot formation in the vicinity of evaporating fuel films. Isooctane is injected by a multi-hole injector into the optically accessible part of a constant-flow facility at atmospheric pressure. Some of the liquid fuel impinges on the quartz-glass windows and forms fuel films. After spark ignition, a turbulent flame front propagates through the chamber, and subsequently sooting combustion is detected near the fuel films. Overlapping laser light sheets at 532 and 1064 nm excite laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) -potential soot precursors- and laser-induced incandescence (LII) of soot, respectively. The 532 nm light sheet has low fluence to avoid the excitation of LII. The LII and LIF signals are detected simultaneously and spectrally separated on two cameras. In complementary line-of-sight imaging, the fuel spray, chemiluminescence, and soot incandescence are captured with a high-speed color camera. In separate experiments, toluene is added to the isooctane as a fluorescent tracer and excited by pulsed 266 nm flood illumination. From images of the LIF signal, the fuel-films’ thickness and mass evolutions are evaluated. The films survive the entire combustion event. PAH LIF is found in close vicinity of the evaporating fuel films. Soot is found spatially separated from, but adjacent to the PAH, both with high spatial intermittency. Average images additionally indicate that soot is formed with a much higher spatial intermittency than PAH. Images from the color camera show soot incandescence earlier and in a similar region compared to soot LII. Chemiluminescence downstream of the soot-forming region is thought to indicate the subsequent oxidation of fuel, soot, and PAH.