Trends in Comprehensive Modeling of Spray Formation

Comprehensive modeling of spray formation in liquid fuel injectors involves modeling of (i) internal hydrodynamics of fuel injector (ii) break up of liquid sheet leading to primary and secondary atomization and (iii) prediction of size and velocity distributions of droplets in the spray. Comprehensive models addressing all the three aspects are rare though some work has been reported that incorporate two of the three aspects. However, significant volume of literature exists on the individual modules. In the present work, progress and current trends in the individual modules have been extensively reviewed and their implications on development of comprehensive models have been discussed. The unresolved issues and future research directions are also indicated.