Spray impingement wall film breakup by wave entrainment

Fuel spray impingement on engine wall and piston in the spark-ignition direct-injection (SIDI) setting has been considered a major concern in the aspect of engine emission and combustion efficiency. Excess wall film will result in deterioration of engine friction, incomplete combustion, and substantial cycle-to-cycle variations. These effects are more pronounced during engine cold-start process. Therefore, the formation of wall film on engine wall/piston and the dynamic process of the wall film interacting with impinging spray and spray-induced gas flow are of great significance for reducing wall film mass. However, the dynamic process of wall film was not investigated thoroughly in existing literatures. This work will present a high-speed, simultaneous measurement of a single-hole spray structure, as well as wall film geometry and thickness, via Mie scattering and volumetric laser-induced fluorescence, respectively. Quantitative film thickness measurement was achieved via fluorescence intensity signal calibration with a known, wedge-shape liquid film apparatus. Remarkable wall film droplet entrainment at the leading edge of the liquid film waves was revealed in the measurement, which has not been adequately depicted or analyzed in existing spray impingement studies. A considerable amount of liquid droplets detaches from the liquid film via liquid film fingering, during which process the quantity of liquid mass on the wall is decreased. Quantitative analysis of such phenomenon is performed and we estimated that a liquid mass equivalent to 30–40% of the residual liquid film mass is detached from the liquid film via wave entrainment. Furthermore, through the comparative study of the side view of the spray and the liquid film caused by spray impingement, it is shown that non-uniform spray structure is likely the cause of liquid film wavy motions. These observations suggest that wave entrainment should be considered by numerical models and experimental designs to accurately predict spray impingement phenomenon.