Macroscopic Spray Behavior of a Single-Hole Common Rail Diesel Injector Using Gasoline-Blended 5% Biodiesel

Abstract

This research studies the macroscopic spray structure from a single-hole common rail diesel injector using gasoline-blended 5% biodiesel for use in compression ignition engines. To reduce the NOX/PM trade-off emissions, researchers are investigating gasoline used in compression ignition engines, called gasoline compression ignition. As a result that gasoline is injected directly into the combustion chamber, its spray field has a significant effect on combustion and emissions. Due to its low lubricity, gasoline is blended with biodiesel 5%, as a lubricity enhancer, to prevent the failure of the high-pressure injection system. The macroscopic spray structures of this gasoline blend were investigated Schlieren photography and planar laser-induced fluorescence-particle image velocimetry. Injection pressure was handled by a conventional common rail system, while ambient pressure was controlled by supplying nitrogen into the constant-volume combustion chamber. The effects of injection pressure and ambient pressure on the gasoline spray elucidated by Planar laser-induced fluorescence coupled with particle-image velocimetry (PLIF-PIV) imagery and comparisons with variations in neat diesel spray. In addition, the flow field of gasoline spray that formed vortexes and vorticity was characterized. The results show that the injection pressure and back pressure had the same effects on the gasoline spray structure, in terms of the penetration tip and cone angle, as on the diesel spray. However, the injection pressure had a greater effect on the diesel spray than the gasoline at low ambient pressure due to the occurrence of cavitation. Moreover, the images show the remarkable turbulent structure of gasoline spray and indicate air entrainment at the spray tip region.