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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Development of a Turbulent Liquid Spray Atomization Model for Diesel Engine Simulations (Final Technical Report)

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1785712· OSTI ID:1785712
 [1]
  1. Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States); Georgia Institute of Technology

This project addresses the systematic lack of predictive capabilities by spray models within engine CFD codes. We develop a new modeling approach to predict the breakup of diesel sprays based on recent literature showing that liquid turbulence plays a fundamental role in spray atomization. A new body of quantitative validation data is also developed as a critical element of the project, leveraging the joint capabilities of Georgia Tech’s high-pressure continuous-flow spray chamber and Argonne National Lab’s near-nozzle x-ray diagnostics at the Advanced Photon Source. This project contributes spatially-resolved measurements of drop size distribution within well-characterized diesel injectors, Spray A and D, from the Engine Combustion Network (ECN) to the engine combustion community for the first time. Utilizing this new body of measurements, we validate and demonstrate a new spray model for diesel sprays, termed the KH-Faeth model, that predicts global and local spray characteristic more accurately than the widely adopted and employed KH model. Predicted drop size distributions are seen to predict measured drops sizes both quantitatively and predictively, with accurate response in droplet size distributions over a wide range of ambient density, injection pressure, and injector nozzle size (Spray A and D) without model tuning. The KH-Faeth model can reduce error in the predicted centerline droplet size profile by up to 80% for ECN Spray D simulations when compared to use of the widely employed KH model.

Research Organization:
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
Contributing Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL)
DOE Contract Number:
EE0007333
OSTI ID:
1785712
Report Number(s):
DOE-GATECH--7333
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English