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Numerical simulation to predict cavitation inside

diesel engine fuel injector nozzle

Conference Paper · June 2016

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Mehul P Bambhania Nikul Patel

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 Numerical simulation to predict cavitation inside
diesel engine fuel injector nozzle

Mehul Bambhania, Nikul Patel,

Department of Mechanical Engineering Department of Mechanical Engineering
Faculty of Technology &Engineering, The M.S.University Faculty of Technology &Engineering, The M.S.University of
of Baroda, Vadodara, India Baroda, Vadodara, India
[email protected] [email protected]

Abstract— Diesel engine performance & emission depends analyze the cavitating flow in fuel injectors in the past two
on fuel spray atomization phenomena which is strongly decades. The geometry of the fuel injector is very complex
influence by cavitation inside fuel injector nozzle. involving the needle, the needle seat, and multiple holes. For
Cavitation inside diesel engine fuel injector nozzle is the purpose of carrying out fundamental study, a “nozzle” of
directly depend on local pressure drop. Numerical cylindrical or rectangular cross section is often used.
simulations were performed in ANSYS 14 to capture
cavitation phenomena in fuel injector nozzle. The effect of
pressure drop on mass flow rate of fuel is calculated for
nozzle. It is observed choked flow when cavitation start. In
present study two phase mixture model used to capture
cavitation along with k-ɛ turbulence model. The validation
of model was done by comparing simulation result with the
experimental results available in literature. Simulation
were conducted for constant injection pressure (Pinj=100
bar) with different back pressure (Pback=20-80bar) to
predict choking in nozzle.

Index Terms—Diesel engine Fuel injector, nozzle, cavitation,

chocking of nozzle, numerical simulation.

I. INTRODUCTION
The injection system of a diesel engine consist of fuel
injection pump, high pressure pipe & fuel injector. The fuel
injection pump supply fuels to the fuel injector through high
pressure pipe. The liquid fuel is forced into the combustion
chamber in form of fine atomized particles with the help of Fig. 1 Sketch of nozzle entrance that shows the cavitation inception[9]
fuel injector. When the temperature reach up to ignition It is extremely difficult to perform experimental
temperature of fuel, combustion process will start & studies on modern fuel injectors with much smaller sizes and
mechanical power is generated. However, the particle of the much higher injection pressures. Therefore, numerical
fuel sprayed by the injector is not correct in size and the simulation has been used as an effective and economical way
amount, the ignition of the diesel engines cannot start to burn for performing injector nozzle design and analysis. The
the fuel. Among the many factors which influence the spray experimental study by Winklhofer et al. [2] is the most
formation and fuel atomization, cavitation inside the fuel comprehensive among the notable experimental studies.
injector is one of the most important factors, especially for Winklhofer et al. not only captured back-scattered images of
Diesel engines. the two-phase flow but also provided quantitative information
Cavitation is commonly known as the process of about mass flow rate, velocity, etc., for a range of outlet
formation of vapor droplets in a liquid created by a sudden pressure and fixed inlet pressure. However, numerical study of
drop in the local pressure below the saturation pressure for the cavitating flows even in a simple geometry can be challenging
liquid. Cavitation inception is when cavitation first occurs in as there is 104–105 order of magnitude difference between the
the system. This is typically at the nozzle entrance or in the densities of the two phases. The various cavitation models can
region immediately adjacent to the vena-contracta. Both essentially be categorized into two groups: (1) single
numerical and experimental studies have been carried out to fluid/continuum models and (2) two-fluid models. In single
fluid/continuum models, the average mixture properties, such III. NUMERICAL SETUP
as density and viscosity, are determined based on the vapor The problem considered in this work is two-phase cavitation
volume fraction. Schmidt et al. [1] and Wallis [5] developed flow inside nozzle. Diesel is considered as a working fluid
model based on single fluid approach. In two-fluid models, the passes through the nozzle with properties listed in table1. The
liquid and vapor phases are treated separately using two sets of evaporation pressure and the vapor density is taken of n-
conservation equations. Chen and Heister [10], Martynov [9] Heptane while the liquid density is given by Winklhofer’s
studied two-fluid model with Eulerian–Eulerian approach. experiments. To capture cavitation Multiphase-mixture model
Giannadakis E. [3] adopt Eulerian–Lagrangian based two-fluid has been selected. Diesel liquid is considered as primary phase
model. & diesel vapor considered as secondary phase. Phase
II. COMPUTATIONAL MODEL interaction is define through mass transfer mechanism used in
cavitation model of Schnerr-Sauer. Under relaxation factor is
Two dimensional nozzle geometry has been generated for set appropriately to ensure solution has been converge.
numerical simulation to capture cavitation. Geometry is chosen Residual during iteration is set 10-5 for present case.
for simulation is similar to the nozzle used in experimental TABLE I. PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF DIESEL FUEL
study carried out by Winklhofer et al. [2]. Purpose of doing so Property Liquid phase Vapor phase Units
is to validate numerical simulation result with experimental Density 832 0.1361 (Kg/m3)
study. Inlet diameter (D) & outlet diameter (d) is 2 mm & 0.3 Dynamic Viscosity 0.0065 5.953 x 10-6 (Pa)(s)
mm respectively. Nozzle length (L) is 1mm. Pressure inlet & Vapor Pressure 5400 (Pa)
pressure outlet boundary condition are assign respectively at
IV. RESULTS & DISCUSSION
entry and exit of the nozzle shown in figure 2.No slip boundary
condition is considered at wall. Entire geometry is meshed with Cavitation is mainly govern by pressure difference across the
36336 quadratic mesh elements. Since property variation near nozzle inlet and outlet. This phenomena is captured by
to wall is significant, so mesh element nearer to wall is refined performing numerical simulation with constant inlet/injection
by grid adaption techniques shown in Fig.3. Simulations are pressure and wide range of outlet/back pressure. The value of
than carried out in ANSYS-FLUENT for steady state injection pressure is kept fix i.e. 100 bar & back pressure is
condition. varying from 15 bar to 80 bar. Results shows that cavitation
will initiate at pressure difference of 60 bar. Due to sudden
decrease in area, local pressure reach below vapor pressure
value which leads formation of vapor bubble near to vena
contracta. This is the beginning of two phase flow inside fuel
nozzle known as cavitation inception. With increase in pressure
difference cavitation will propagate along the axial direction
shown in Fig.4. Once cavitation reach at the outlet of nozzle,
phenomena is known as super cavitation. This is the case in
which complete two-phase flow occurred at the outlet of the
fuel injector nozzle, which significantly affect atomization
process of fuel.
Moreover with the reduction in back pressure, mass
Fig. 2 Computational domain with boundary condition flow rate of fuel is increases linearly up to cavitation inception
phenomena. Once cavitation start inside the nozzle, rate of
increase in mass of fuel is slow down. Now condition arise,
where mass flow rate of fuel does not change with pressure
drop. This is known as “chocking” in nozzle, shown in Fig.5.
Results obtained for choking phenomena are in good
agreement with experimental results produced by Winklhofer
et.al. [2]. shown in table 2 and Fig. 5.
TABLE II. COMPARISON BETWEEN EXPERIMENT & NUMERICAL RESULTS
FOR ASS FLOW RATE IN GRAM/SEC
∆P in bar 20 55 60 65 70 75 80 85
4.1 6.8 7.2 7.5 7.6 7.7 7.7 7.7
(Winklhofer)
4.2 7.05 7.35 7.51 7.55 7.57 7.57 7.57
(Present
work)

Fig. 3 Detail mesh element view with adapted grid at wall

 8

Mass flow rate of fuel in gram/sec

7
Chocked flow

6 Cavitation Inception

Present work
(a) ∆P=20 bar (b) ∆P=60 bar 4
Winklhofer

3
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Pressure difference in bar
Fig 5 Effect of pressure difference on mass flow rate of fuel

REFERENCES
[1] D Schmidt, P. Rutland, C. J. Corrandini, P. Roosen, P., and O.
Genge, “Cavitation in 2-D Asymmetric Nozzles,” SAE Paper
No. 1999-01- 0518, 1999.
[2] E. Winklhofer, E. Kull, E. Kelz,, & A. Morozov, “Comprehensive
Hydraulic and Flow Field Documentation in Model Throttle
Experiments Under Cavitation Conditions,” 17th International
(c) ∆P=65 bar (d) ∆P=70 bar
Conference on Liquid Atomization and Spray Systems (ILASS)
Europe, Zurich, Sept. 2–6, 2001.
[3] E. Giannadakis, M. Gavaises, H. Roth, and C. Arcoumanis,
“Cavitation Modeling in Single-Hole Diesel Injector Based on
Eulerian-Lagrangian Approach,” Proceedings of the THIESEL
International Conference on Thermo- and Fluid Dynamic
Process in Diesel Engines, Valencia, Spain, 2004.
[4] F.D.Andersen “Numerical Simulation of the Flow in Fuel Nozzles
for Two-Stroke diesel Engines” Master thesis, Technical
University of Denmark, 2011.
[5] G.B.Wallis, “One-Dimensional Two-Phase Flow”, McGraw-Hill,
New York, 1969.
[6] H.B.Mehta, J.Banerjee, M.P.Bambhania, & J.B.Desai, “CFD
analysis on Taylor slug flow through 3d vertical mini-channel”,
(e) ∆P=75 bar (f) ∆P=85 bar 9th International Conference on Nanochannels, Microchannels,
Fig. 4 Contour of vapor fraction at different pressure difference and Minichannels, ASME, 2011.
[7] K.Saha, X. Li, “Assessment of Cavitation Models for Flows in
V. CONCLUSION Diesel Injectors With Single- and Two-Fluid Approaches”,
 Since ANSYS-FLUENT is capable CFD tool to Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power, ASME, vol
capture cavitation phenomena in fuel nozzle. 138, 2016.
[8] M.Bambhania, H.B.Mehta, N. Chudasama, “Numerical
 Moreover results obtained through numerical simulation of Taylor flow in inverted Y-Junction Mini-
simulations are in good agreement with Channel”, 39 national conference of FMFP, 2012.
experimental results available in literature. [9] S Martynov, “Numerical Simulation of the Cavitation Process in
 Increase in pressure drop leads to rise in mass flow Diesel Fuel Injectors”, Ph.D. thesis, The University of Brighton,
rate of fuel up to certain range. 2005.
 After cavitation inception inside nozzle, mass flow [10] Y. Chen and S.D. Heister, “Two-Phase Modeling of Cavitated
rate of fuel becomes constant. Flows,” Computational Fluids, 24, pp. 799–806, 1995.
 Cavitation phenomena propagate with pressure
difference and it reaches up to the outlet of nozzle
& it leads to super cavitation phenomena.

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