Transient Cavitation and Friction-Induced Heating Effects of Diesel Fuel during the Needle Valve Early Opening Stages for Discharge Pressures up to 450 MPa

Konstantinos Kolovos, Phoevos Koukouvinis, Robert M. McDavid and Manolis Gavaises
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Konstantinos Kolovos: Department of Mechanical Engineering & Aeronautics, School of Mathematics, Computer Sciences & Engineering, City University of London, London EC1V 0HB, UK
Phoevos Koukouvinis: Department of Mechanical Engineering & Aeronautics, School of Mathematics, Computer Sciences & Engineering, City University of London, London EC1V 0HB, UK
Robert M. McDavid: Caterpillar Inc., Mossville, IL 61552, USA
Manolis Gavaises: Department of Mechanical Engineering & Aeronautics, School of Mathematics, Computer Sciences & Engineering, City University of London, London EC1V 0HB, UK

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 10, 1-18

Abstract: An investigation of the fuel heating, vapor formation, and cavitation erosion location patterns inside a five-hole common rail diesel fuel injector, occurring during the early opening period of the needle valve (from 2 μm to 80 μm), discharging at pressures of up to 450 MPa, is presented. Numerical simulations were performed using the explicit density-based solver of the compressible Navier–Stokes (NS) and energy conservation equations. The flow solver was combined with tabulated property data for a four-component diesel fuel surrogate, derived from the perturbed chain statistical associating fluid theory (PC-SAFT) equation of state (EoS), which allowed for a significant amount of the fuel’s physical and transport properties to be quantified. The Wall Adapting Local Eddy viscosity (WALE) Large Eddy Simulation (LES) model was used to resolve sub-grid scale turbulence, while a cell-based mesh deformation arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) formulation was used for modelling the injector’s needle valve movement. Friction-induced heating was found to increase significantly when decreasing the pressure. At the same time, the Joule–Thomson cooling effect was calculated for up to 25 degrees K for the local fuel temperature drop relative to the fuel’s feed temperature. The extreme injection pressures induced fuel jet velocities in the order of 1100 m/s, affecting the formation of coherent vortical flow structures into the nozzle’s sac volume.

Keywords: cavitation; real-fluid; 450 MPa injection pressure; erosion; LES; ALE (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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