Measurements of Cycle to Cycle Variability of the Inlet Flow of Fuel Injectors Using LDA

The focus of this research effort was to develop a technique to measure the cyclic variability of the mass injected by fuel injectors. Successful implementation of the measurement technique introduced in this paper can be used to evaluate injectors and improve their designs. More consistent and precise fuel injectors have the potential to improve fuel efficiency, engine performance, and reduce emissions. The experiments for this study were conducted at the Michigan State University Automotive Research Experiment Station. The setup consists of a fuel supply vessel pressurized by compressed nitrogen, a Dantec laser Doppler anemometry (LDA) system to measure the centerline velocity of fuel, a quartz tube for optical access, and a Cosworth IC 5460 to control the injector. The detector on the LDA system is capable of resolving Doppler bursts as short as 6μs, depending on the level of seeding, thus giving a detailed time/velocity profile. From this profile, the mass injected for each injection event is then calculated using appropriate fluid mechanics equations for unsteady flows. These calculated values were compared with cycle-averaged measurements to validate the accuracy of this technique. Finally, profiles of the mass injected per cycle were generated and the variability calculated in terms of standard deviation, coefficient of variation, and probability density functions (PDFs).