Computational Investigations of Spray Atomization and Evaporation Under Cold-Start Conditions of a Diesel Engine

Unburnt hydrocarbon emissions and combustion instability are severe issues in diesel engines during cold starting. This simulation study aims to provide insights for improving the cold-start issues of diesel engines. Computational analysis of the diesel spray and evolution of plumes from a 7-hole injector was done in a constant volume quiescent spray chamber for analyzing the effect of fuel temperature. This study was based on a comprehensive numerical analysis using CONVERGE computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software, where an Eulerian–Lagrangian approach was adopted in a large eddy simulation (LES) framework. Diesel engine-like cold-start conditions were replicated by reducing the fuel temperatures to 250 K to simulate freezing conditions outside. This computational study compares fuel sprays at 250 K with 312 K into a relatively colder ambient temperature of 626 K vis-a-vis high-temperature diesel engine-like ambient conditions with ambient temperature to 961 K to investigate the degree of spray characteristics improvements due to increased fuel temperature. The predicted liquid spray penetration obtained by simulations agreed well with the experimental data for fuel temperatures injected into the ambient at cold (626 K) and hot (961 K) engine-like ambient conditions. The available empirical relations justify the simulation results of this study. Results showed that fuel and ambient temperatures significantly affected the spray atomization and evaporation characteristics. A higher reduction in liquid penetration length was found with increasing fuel temperature at hot ambient conditions. Increasing ambient temperature also improved the evaporation characteristics of the spray droplets. Vapor formation for the same increase in fuel temperature was higher at hot ambient temperature than the cold. Fuel temperature had a major role in the spray atomization process, whereas the ambient temperature affected the spray evaporation process. However, fuel and ambient temperatures had only a minor effect on the distribution of total kinetic energy (TKE). Among all test conditions, a fuel temperature of 312 K sprayed in hot ambient conditions showed superior fuel spray atomization and evaporation. Hence, to tackle the cold-start of diesel engines, measures taken to increase the fuel and ambient temperatures simultaneously proved to be useful.