Evolution of a high pressure spray from a swirled gasoline injector

An extensive experimental work has been made in order to analyze the structure of the spray of a large-angle single-hole high-pressure swirl injector for direct-injection spark-ignited (DISI) gasoline engines. Spatial and temporal evolution measurements of the spray have been carried out in an optically accessible vessel. The spray has been lighted by an 80 mm thickness and 12 ns duration pulsed laser sheet, generated by a 532 nm Nd-YAG laser, both along the spray axis and in cross sections perpendicularly to it. The scattered light has been collected at 90\mD from the laser sheet direction by a digital CCD camera with a frame grabber synchronized to the single-shot injection command and the laser start pulse. A digital image processing system has allowed analyzing the images collected by the CCD camera. It has been possible to visualize the formation and the spatial and temporal evolution of the initial liquid slug (pre-spray) and of the hollow-cone and solid-cone stray structure. Many changes in the internal spray structure at different distances from the nozzle have been observed.