Comparative analysis of spray parameters for ethanol and gasoline from a multi-hole direct injector

In this work, atomization parameters were analyzed by the image visualization of spray from a multi-hole direct injection injector, operating in a backpressure chamber. Such characteristics like cone angle and penetration were analyzed for similar fluids concerning gasoline and ethanol - EXXSOL D40 and EXXSOL D60 respectively under an environment pressure of 5 bar, to simulate incylinder condition, and injection pressure of 70, 90, 100 and 110 bar. To control the injection a Motec-M84 and a driver peak and hold were used. A high speed camera was used for recording images of injection process. The spray images were obtained by a 6504 frames per second recording process, applying shadowgraph technique and MatLab codes were written for image treatment. With the data generated, a comparison between the fluid parameters could be made for direct injection under pressurized environment. For the conditions used in these tests, similar results were obtained of the studied parameters for the two tested fluids. The flex-fuel direct injection engines are being introduced in the Brazilian market and this technology tends to be increasingly used and improved. Thus, understanding the spray behavior for both fuels is of great importance for the development of new direct injection engines.