Investigation of Diesel Sprays Using Diffraction-Based Droplet Sizing

The study of combustion in direct injection Diesel engines demands detailed understanding of the behavior of the injection. Understanding the injection involves characterizing the distribution of fuel particle sizes throughout the spray. This work studied the size distributions of sprays from commercial Diesel injectors under a series of conditions. A diffraction-based diagnostic obtained maps of local fuel droplet size information over the full spray field. Most quantitative techniques currently used in spray research provide quantitative time-ranging data at a single point in the spray field. Spatially resolved information proves more useful in studying transient sprays. The spatially resolved maps of particle size obtained in this experiment showed the reliability of the diagnostic, exhibited the transience of the fine structure of these sprays, and demonstrated the evolution of the sprays with time.