Developments in spray modeling in diesel and direct-injection gasoline engines

In direct-injection engines the fuel spray characteristics influence the combustion efficiency and exhaust emissions. The performance of available spray models for predicting liquid and vapor fuel distributions, and their influence on combustion is reviewed for both diesel and gasoline direct injection engines. A phenomenological nozzle flow model is described for simulating the effects of diesel injector nozzle internal geometry on the fuel injection and spray processes. The flow model provides initial conditions for the liquid jet breakup model that considers wave instabilities due to Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) and Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) mechanisms. A linearized instability analysis has also been extended to consider the breakup of liquid sheets for modeling pressure-swirl gasoline injectors. Diesel engine predictions have been compared with extensive data from in-cylinder laser diagnostics carried out in optically accessible heavy-duty, DI Diesel engines over a wide range of operating conditions. The results show that the nozzle flow model used in combination with the KH and RT models gives realistic spray predictions. In particular, the limited liquid fuel penetration length observed experimentally and the flame shape details are captured accurately. The liquid sheet breakup model has also been compared favorably with experimental spray penetration and drop size data for gasoline hollow-cone sprays. This model is currently being applied to study stratified charge combustion in GDI engines.