The spray formation and combustion characteristics of gasoline and E85 (85% ethanol, 15% gasoline) have been investigated using a multi-hole injector with asymmetric nozzle-hole arrangement. Experiments were carried out in a quiescent optical chamber using high-speed shadowgraphy (9 kHz) to characterise the spray sensitivity to both injector temperature and ambient pressure in the range of 20-120 °C and 0.5, 1.0 bar.Spray tip penetrations and 'umbrella' spray cone angles were calculated for all conditions. Phase Doppler anemometry was also used to measure droplet sizes in the core of one of the spray plumes, 25 mm below the injector tip. To study the effect of fuel properties on vaporisation and mixture preparation under realistic operating conditions, a separate set of experiments was carried out in a direct-injection spark-ignition optical engine. The engine was run at 1500 RPM under cold and fully warmed-up conditions (20 °C and 90 °C) at part load and full load (0.5 and 1.0 bar intake pressure). Floodlit laser Mie-scattering images of the sprays on two orthogonal planes corresponding to the swirl and tumble planes of in-cylinder flow motion were acquired to study the full injection event and post-injection mixing stage. These were used to make comparisons with the static chamber sprays and to quantify the liquid-to-vapour phase evaporation process for both fuels by calculating the projected 'footprint' of the sprays at different conditions. Analysis of the macroscopic structure and turbulent primary break-up properties of the sprays was undertaken in light of jet exit conditions described in terms of non-dimensional numbers. The effects on stoichiometric combustion were investigated by imaging the natural flame chemiluminescence through the engine's piston crown (swirl plane) and by post-processing to derive flame growth rates and trajectories of flame motion.

Extensive literature exists on spray development, mixing and combustion regarding engine modeling and diagnostics using single-component and model fuels. However, often the variation in data between different fuels, particularly relating to spray development and its effect on combustion, is neglected or overlooked. By injecting into a quiescent chamber, this work quantifies the differences in spray development from a multi-hole direct-injection spark-ignition engine injector for two single-component fuels (iso-octane and n-pentane), a non-fluorescing multi-component model fuel which may be used for in-cylinder Laser Induced Fluorescence experiments, and several grades of pump gasoline (with and without additives). High-speed recordings of the sprays were made for a range of fuel temperatures and gas pressures. It is shown that a fuel temperature above that of the lowest boiling point fraction of the tested fuel at the given gas pressure causes a convergence of the spray plumes. Increasing the fuel temperature increases this convergence, whilst an associated increased rate of evaporation tends to reduce the penetration of individual plumes. The convergence increases gradually with increasing fuel temperature until all plumes combine to form a single wider plume with a penetration rate greater than that of the individual plumes. When all plumes are converged to form a single plume along a central axis to all the plumes, any further increase in fuel temperature at the given gas pressure acts to increase the rate of evaporation of the fuel. At experiments up to 180 °C fuel temperature and down to 0.3 bar absolute gas pressure, none of the tested fuels were found to spontaneously vaporize; all observed spray formations being a gradual evolution. Increasing the gas pressure at any given fuel temperature, leads to an increase in the boiling temperature of all components of that fuel and, hence, diminishes these effects.

Improvements to the direct-injection spark-ignition combustion system are necessary if the potential reductions in fuel consumption and emissions are to be fully realized in the near future. One critical link in the optimization process is the design and performance of the injectors used for fuel atomization. Multi-hole injectors have become the state-of-the-art choice for gasoline direct injection engines due to their flexibility in fuel targeting by selection of the number and angle of the nozzle holes, as well as due to their demonstrated stability of performance under a wide range of operating conditions. Recently there has been increased attention devoted to the study of the flow through the internal passages of injectors because of the presence of particular fluid phenomena, such as large scale vortical motion and cavitation patterns, which have been shown to influence the characteristics of primary break-up. Understanding how cavitation can be used to improve spray atomisation is essential for optimising mixture preparation quality under early injection and stratified engine operating conditions but currently no data exist for injector-body temperatures representative of real engine operation, particularly at low-load conditions that can also lead to phase change due to fuel flash boiling. This paper outlines results from an experimental imaging investigation into the effects of fuel properties, temperature and pressure conditions on the extent of cavitation, flash boiling and, subsequently, primary break-up. This was achieved by the use of a real-size transparent nozzle of a gasoline injector from a modern direct-injection combustion system. Gasoline, iso-octane and n-pentane fuels were used at 20 and 90 °C injector-body temperatures for ambient pressures of 0.5 bar and 1.0 bar in order to simulate early homogeneous injection strategies for part-load and wide-open-throttle engine operation.3

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