Experimental investigation of a direct injection diesel injector in a constant volume injection chamber

In an optically accessible, constant volume, quiescent injection cell, the liquid phase of a non-evaporating direct injection spray was visualized using the Exciplex Planar Laser Induced Fluorescence technique. The goal of this work was to develop a correlation for the effect of ambient density on spray tip penetration. Therefore, an experimental test matrix was set up with injection pressure and ambient density as the variables. Good optical access and a short visualization pathway allowed for high-resolution images to be recorded simultaneously via two CCD cameras. Images were recorded at various timings to temporally resolve the spray. A correlation was developed and the results show a strong dependence of spray tip penetration on ambient density.