High Resolution Numerical Simulations of Primary Atomization in Diesel Sprays with Single Component Reference Fuels

Abstract : A high-resolution numerical simulation of jet breakup and spray formation from a complex diesel fuel injector at diesel engine type conditions has been performed. A full understanding of the primary atomization process in diesel fuel injection has not been achieved for several reasons including the difficulties accessing the optically dense region. Due to the recent advances in numerical methods and computing resources, high resolution simulations of atomizing flows are becoming available to provide new insights of the process. In the present study, an unstructured un-split Volume-of-Fluid (VoF) method is employed to simulate the injection event with prescribed bulk inflow conditions. An axial single-hole ARL fuel injector was X-ray scanned at The Advanced Photon Source Facility from Argonne National Laboratory for this work to define the internal geometry. The working conditions correspond to orifice dimensions of 90 m fueled with n-paraffin (n-dodecane) and iso-paraffin (iso-octane) reference fuels for a detailed investigation of fuel specific mixing mechanisms.