City Research Online

Abstract

High-pressure multi-hole nozzles, carrying a Diesel-derived technology, are believed to be promising Fuel Injection Equipment (FIE) for Direct-Injection (DI) Spark Ignition (SI) gasoline engines. Having explored thoroughly swirl pressure atomisers and their spray behaviour, multi-hole nozzles represent the second-generation injectors. Thus, complete investigation of multi-hole nozzle flow, spray characteristics and their engine performance is a vital part of development of future DI gasoline engines. The internal nozzle flow of an enlarged transparent multi-hole injector was investigated for different flow rates and needle lifts under steady state flow conditions. High-resolution CCD camera and high speed digital video systems were employed to visualize the nozzle flow patterns and cavitation development. The images identified the onset of cavitation in multi-hole gasoline nozzles and revealed the transition from pre-film to film stage cavitation. Cavitation strings were also visualized inside the injection hole that could extend to the needle face. However, these structures are highly unstable and directly affected by needle lift and cavitation number, although it appeared to be independent of the Re, in a behaviour similar to that of multi-hole diesel injectors. The sprays from various high-pressure multi-hole nozzle designs injected into a high-pressure/temperature constant-volume chamber have been visualised and quantified in terms of droplet velocity and diameter with a two-component phase-Doppler Anemometry (PDA) system at injection pressures up to 200bar and chamber pressures varying from atmospheric to 12bar. The overall spray angles relative to the axis of the injector were found to be almost independent of injection and chamber pressure, a significant advantage relative to swirl pressure atomisers. Within the measured range, the effect of injection pressure on droplet size was rather small while the increase in chamber pressure from atmospheric to 12bar resulted in much smaller droplet velocities, by up to fourfold, and larger droplet sizes by up to 40%. The effect of chamber temperature on multi-hole sprays confirmed the expected trends that dictate smaller droplet size distributions as temperature rise from 50 to 90 and 120°C. Additionally, multiple-injection proved to have similar dependencies to the single injection with certain operating limits. Laser-induced fluorescence has been mainly used to characterise the two-dimensional fuel vapour concentration inside the cylinder of a multi-valve twin-spark ignition engine equipped with high-pressure multi-hole injectors. The effects of injection timing, in-cylinder charge motion and injector tip layout have been quantified. The flexibility in nozzle design of the multi-hole injectors has proven to be a powerful tool in terms of matching overall spray cone angle and number of holes to specific engine configurations. Injection timing was found to control spray impingement on the piston and cylinder wall, thus contributing to quick and efficient fuel evaporation. Multipleinjection performed well under certain operating conditions and proved to be a powerful tool in the hands of engine manufacturers. It was confirmed that in-cylinder charge motion plays a major role in engine's stable operation by assisting in the transportation of the air-fuel mixture towards the ignition locations (i.e. spark-plugs) in the way of a uniformly distributed charge or by preserving stratification of the charge depending on operating mode of the engine.

Publication Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Subjects:	T Technology > TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General)
Departments:	Doctoral Theses School of Science & Technology > School of Science & Technology Doctoral Theses

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