Numerical analysis of nozzle geometry on spray

characteristics in CI Engine using CFD

PRESENTED BY

Hitul Ramani
(140770711021)
GUIDED BY

Assi.Prof. Umang vora

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

SILVER OAK COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY
GUJARAT TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

Outline
Problem Identification
Motivation
Introduction & Literature Survey
Problem Definition
Basics of CFD & Selection of Model
Model generation
Results & discussion
Conclusion
Future scope
References

Problem identification
To improve IC engine performance
Engine and its components design modification
Increasing the speed of the engine
Use of higher compression ratios
Use of fuel additives
Increasing charge density
Injector nozzle design modification

Motivation
Increasing demands from engines to
Improve performance
Reduce emission levels
Use of alternative fuels
Engine combustion process efficiency mainly depends on
Injector Nozzle design & Injection pressure
Fuel spray
Types of fuel

Introduction
In Diesel engines, only air is inducted during suction
stroke and the fuel is injected at the end of compression
stroke under high pressure .
Fuel is injected with the help of fuel injector in case of
diesel engine.
Design of the diesel fuel injector nozzle is critical to the
performance and emissions of modern diesel engines.

Types of nozzles :

Nozzle
parameters
Number of holes
Nozzle hole size & shape
Nozzle hole angle
Nozzle SAC diameter

What is fuel
spray ?
Fuel sprays are the result of high
pressure-driven liquid fuel jets
injected through a nozzle orifice into
a combustion chamber.
Diesel fuel sprays are usually of the
full cone type.

Spray
characteristics
Atomization
Evaporation rate
SMD of droplet
Spray cone angle
Spray penetration

Literature Survey
Research Areas Explored
Effects of following on spray characteristics
Nozzle geometry
Injection pressure
Fuel properties
Bio-fuels

Simulation (CFD)

Nozzle geometry
Title

Author

Publication

Remark

Effects of
Injector
Nozzle
Geometry On
Spray
Characteristics
, An Analysis

Arya pirooz

Indian J.Sci.Res. 5
(1): 354-361, 2014

For all the diesel engine the main goal in injector design
would be to have highest injection pressure. Author
analyse the main nozzle parameter hole number and hole
diameter with a case study is as follows:
Hole number :
As the hole number increases, spray injection pressure and
spray tip penetrartion decreases ,atomization also decreases.
As the hole number increases, injection rate and injection
volume also increased.
So Number of hole needs to remain less.
Hole diameter :
As the hole diameter increase , spray injection pressure and
atomization decrease.
As the diameter of hole increase, penetration depth
,injection rate and injection volume increase.
So Diameter of hole needs to remain smaller. 11

Nozzle geometry
Title

Author

Publication

Remark

Effects of
Injector Nozzle
Geometry In a Di
Diesel engine.

F. j.salvador

International
Journal of
Advanced
Mechanical
Engineering,
Vol.4, Issue 9,
2015

f.j.salvador analyse the main nozzle parameter nozzle

SAC diameter and nozzle seat angle and its effect on spray
characteristics :
Nozzle SAC diameter :
As the SAC diameter increases, injection pressure
increased.
As the SAC diameter increases, spray tip penetrartion
decreases.
Needle seat angle :
As the needle seat angle increase , injection pressure
increase.
Finally author conclude that if we want to use nozzle
with higher number and big diameter for best cylinder
mixture then nozzles sac diameter and seat angle must
be increase so that the injection pressure remains same.
This paper justify the use of higher holes in the12 injector
design.

Nozzle geometry
Title

Author

Publication

Remark

Experimental
Study on Effects
of
Nozzle Hole
Geometry on
Achieving Low
Diesel Engine
Emissions

Prashanth
K. Karra,
SongCharng
Kong

International
journal of ASME,
association 2010

In this study, three injectors with different nozzle

geometries were tested in a multicylinder turbocharged
diesel engine. The injectors used in the study included a sixhole nozzle, a ten-hole nozzle, and a six-hole convergent
nozzle with a K-factor of 3.
Emissions results showed that the convergent nozzle
produced higher soot emissions than the straight-hole
nozzle. The possible reason is that the lack of cavitation in
the convergent nozzle may have a negative effect on liquid
atomization.
Small diameter of the nozzle hole produce the small fuel
droplet for better atomization and mixing.

13

Nozzle geometry and Injection pressure

Title

Author

Publication

Remark

Simulation
research on
spray
characteristics
of diesel
engine

Xiaorong
Wang,
Jinxin
Zhang, Fei
Yan, Bo Liu
and
Wenxian
Tang

International
Journal of
Engineering and
Technology,
association 2012

Author studied spray characteristics of diesel engine and

calculated the influence of injection pressure and length to
diameter ratio of nozzle hole on spray penetration, droplet sauter
average diameter and spray cone Angle by using the model.
By simulation they found that For better spray atomization,
injection pressure must be high and l/d ratio of nozzle hole
should be small.
The results of this literature is in fair agreement with previous
literature.

Nozzle geometry
Title

Author

Publication

Remark

Effect of
nozzle
geometrical
and dynamic
factors on
cavitating and
turbulent flow
in a diesel
multi-hole
injector
nozzle

Zhixia He ,
Wenjun
Zhong, Qian
Wang,
Zhaochen
Jiang,
Zhuang
Shao

International
Journal of
Thermal
Sciences
132e143,
Science
direct,2013

Author studied effect of orifice inclination angle on cavitating

flow and discharge coefficient.
By simulation they found that the variation of orifice
inclination angle has no obvious influence to the cavitating
flow.
While the discharge coefficient declines largely with orifice
inclination angle varying from 84 to 74 and the variation of
orifice inclination angle will heavily affect the discharge
coefficient.
The pressure changes significantly in initial stage at nozzle
orifice and maximum pressure occcur at the interface of the
nozzle wall and orifice.

Fuel properties
Title

Author

Publication

Remark

Study of
diesel sprays
using
computationa
l fluid
dynamics

John
Agudelo,
Andres
Agudelo,
Pedro
Benjumea

International
Journal of
Engineering
Science and
Technology,
Vol.4, Issue 04,
2012

The author has been selected The Kelvin-Helmholtz RayleighTaylor (KH-RT) model to simulate the spray breakup.
The model allowed studying the effect of fuel properties ,
injection pressure and ambient gas pressure on spray tip
penetration, Sauter mean diameter (SMD) and evaporated fuel
mass.
Fuel properties significantly affected the atomization and
evaporation processes and in a lesser extent the spray fuel
penetration.
Regarding the injection pressures, the SMD increased with
viscosity and surface tension while the evaporation rate
increased with fuel volatility.

Diesel vs Bio-diesel
Title

Author

Publication

Remark

Spray Behavior
Comparison in
Diesel Engine
with Biodiesel
as Fuel

Gautam
Kumar

Journal of Energy
Technologies and
Policy ISSN
2224-3232
(Paper)
Vol.3, No.4, 2013

In this particular paper author used biodiesel as a fuel

and carried out a CFD simulation using lagrangian
approach.
The study showed that biodiesels give longer spray tip
penetration.
Estimation on spray droplet size showed that biodiesels
generate larger Sauter mean diameter due to higher
viscosity and surface tension.
Spray tip penetration of biodiesel increased and its
spray cone angle decreased when the ambient pressure
become lower.

Bio-fuel
Title

Author

Publication

Remark

Experimental
study of spray
characteristics
of biodiesel
derived
from waste
cooking oil

Balaji Mohan,
Wenming Yang
, Kun Lin Tay,
Wenbin Yu

International
Journal of
Engineering
Science and
Technology,
Vol.4, Issue 04,
2015

In this study, the fuel spray characteristics of waste

cooking oil biodiesel (B100) and its blend with diesel
(B20) were investigated and compared with diesel fuel.
B100 gives longer spray tip penetration and higher
spray velocity compared to B20 and diesel fuels. B20
and diesel fuel showed smaller difference in penetration
and velocity under high ambient pressure.
B100 showed narrow spray angles than B20 and diesel.
The spray angles are unaffected by injection
pressure.Result of this literature is in fairly agreement with
previous literature.

CFD method
Title

Author

Publication

Remark

Numerical
modelling of
diesel spray
Using the
eulerian
multiphase
approach

Milan
Vujanovic,
Zvonimir
Petranovic,
Wilfried
Edelbauer,
Jakov
Baleta,
Neven Duic

International
Journal of
Engineering
Science and
Technology,
Vol.4, Issue 04,
2012

This research investigates high pressure diesel fuel injection

into the combustion chamber by performing computational
simulations using the Euler-Eulerian multiphase approach.
An Eulerian multiphase spray modelling concept, applying
the method with constant size class diameters assigned to each
of the liquid droplet phases, has been presented.
Furthermore, this research showed that using the Eulerian
multiphase is a good approach for adequately describing
diesel fuel injection processes and can serve as valuable
tool in the process of development of modern fuel injection
system.
The result showed that the increase in the injection pressure
caused further fuel vapour penetration with only minor
influences on the fuel liquid penetration, while the increase in
chamber pressure had the opposite effect.

CFD method
Title

Author

Publicatio
n

Remark

The
numerical
simulation
of biofuels
spray

Blaz
Vajda,
Luka
Lesnik,
Gorazd
Bombek

Fuel 144
Author concluded that:
The EulerLagrange approach is more suitable for fuel spray
(2015) 71
79, Dec
simulations because it treats each fuel droplet as an individual
2014,
particle.
ScienceDirect
The comparison of the spray cone angle, penetration length, and
velocity profiles showed that the biofuels have similar spray shapes
and characteristics to those of the standard diesel fuel.
The study indicates the possibility of replacing the mineral diesel
fuels with different bio-fuels.
Author recommended that:
To achieve more universal expressions, additional research
should be conducted for several different injection systems and
specifically nozzles.

Review conclusion
Diameter of hole needs to remain smaller because as the diameter of hole increases

injection rate and injection volume increase. Small diameter of the nozzle hole produce the
small fuel droplet for better atomization and mixing.
Number of hole needs to remain less because as the hole number increases spray tip
penetration and atomization decreases .
As the SAC diameter increases, spray tip penetration decreases. so the SAC diameter
needs to remain smaller.
Convergent hole nozzle produced higher soot emissions than the straight-hole
nozzle. The possible reason is that the lack of cavitation in the convergent nozzle may have
a negative effect on liquid atomization.
For better spray atomization, injection pressure must be high and l/d ratio of nozzle
hole should be small.

Review conclusion
The variation of orifice inclination angle has no obvious influence to the cavitating flow.
Nozzle internal flow determines the initial conditions of the spray.

The pressure changes significantly in initial stage at nozzle orifice and maximum
pressure occcur at the interface of the nozzle wall and orifice. Pressure change determines
the cavitation inside the nozzle orifice and penetration of the fuel air mixture from the
nozzle outlet.
Fuel properties significantly affected the atomization and evaporation processes and in a
lesser extent the spray fuel penetration.
Estimation on spray droplet size showed that biodiesels generate larger Sauter mean
diameter due to higher viscosity and surface tension.
The EulerLagrange approach is more suitable for fuel spray simulations because it
treats each fuel droplet as an individual particle.

Problem Definition
By concluding the literature review it has been found that there is a Possibility of optimization of
nozzle parameters by using CFD.
Using finite volume approach, Selection of suitable model (Mutiple hole nozzle) for multiphase
simulation of fuel .
To study the microscopic spray parameters using the model.
Based on the model , Sauter mean diameter of the spray droplet has been found for which the
performance gets increased.
Based on this, the project can be defined as-

Numerical analysis of effects of nozzle geometry on spray characteristics in

Compression ignition engine using CFD

CFD
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is the science of predicting fluid flow, heat and
mass transfer, chemical reactions, and related phenomena by solving numerically the
set of governing mathematical equations.
Conservation of matter, momentum and energy must be satisfied throughout the region.
Advantages :
CFD simulations are relatively inexpensive and costs are likely to decrease as
computers become more powerful
CFD provides the ability to theoretically simulate any physical condition.
CFD allows the analyst to examine a large number of locations in the region of interest.

CFD modeling
basics
Problem Identification
1.Define your modeling goals
2.Identify the domain you will model
Pre-Processing and Solver Execution
3.Create a model to represent the domain
4.Design and create the mesh (grid)
5.Set up the physics (physical models, material properties,
domain properties , boundary conditions etc.)
6.Define solver settings
7.Compute and monitor the solution

Specifications of the model

Type of the nozzle
No of nozzle hole

Multiple hole nozzle

(straight hole)
4

SAC diameter

2.5 mm

SAC vertical length

8 mm

Nozzle orifice diameter

0.4 mm

Nozzle orifice length

6.4 mm

Angle of nozzle hole

780

Model
generation
The model shows in the figure is a
symmetry of four hole nozzle
(Multiplehole ; No of hole : 4).
The model is only 30 degree of the
actual model (i.e. 1/12). It is taken on
the basis of (Wenjun Zhong
et.al.2013) paper in which author has
been taken the same for four hole
nozzle to simulate the flow.

Mesh statistics
Number of nodes

23227

Number of elements

111051

Aspect ratio

1.84

Element quality

0.8363

Size

Fine

Smoothing

Medium

Method

Tetrahedrons

Meshing of full geometry taken for simulation

Meshing
Nozzle interior

Outer wall

Meshing
Side wall periodic _a

Side wall periodic _b

Meshing
Nozzle hole

Inlet

Solution procedure
1. Material :
Fuel selected as: diesel fuel
Species as : C10H22, O2

2. Models :
Energy equation (on)
k- turbulence model (standard)
Species transport enable

3. Boundary conditions
Sr.no.

Parameter

Actual values

Inlet

Mass fuel inlet

9.167 *10-4 kg/s

Outlet

Pressure outlet

21.5 MPa

Wall

Outer wall

Specified Shear

4. Solution method
Pressure velocity coupling :
Simple
Simplec
Piso
Coupled
Calculation runs for 200 iteration with 1s pseudo time and followed results obtained.

Results and discussion

Pressure-Velocity Coupling: SIMPLE
Figure shows the residual variation of
continuity, momentum and energy
equation with species transport (Dieselair) and k-epsilon turbulence for
Pressure-Velocity Coupling as SIMPLE.
From the figure it is clear that the
solution is conversed in approximately
200 iterations.

Pressure-Velocity
Coupling: COUPLED
In the second simulation I have
selected the Pressure-Velocity Coupling as
Coupled. The residuals of continuity,
momentum and energy equation with
species transport (Diesel-air) and kepsilon turbulence conversed in 160
iterations approximately.
Due to which computational time
reduced significantly. This is the reason I
have selected the COUPLED algorithm
for Pressure-Velocity Coupling.

Variation in the pressure

near to the wall and nozzle
orifice interface
Figure shows the changes in the pressure
near to the wall and nozzle orifice interface.
Color variation in the figure shows the
pressure changes significantly in initial
stage at the nozzle orifice.
Pressure change determines the cavitation
inside the nozzle orifice and penetration of
the fuel air mixture from the nozzle outlet .

Highest pressure in the nozzle orifice

is approximately 2*1007 pascal which is
responsible for the penetration and
lowest pressure has negative magnitude
which is responsible for the cavitation.

Validation
As per the literature (Wenjun Zhong
et.al.2013),
the
pressure
changes
significantly in initial stage at nozzle
orifice and maximum pressure occcur at
the interface of the nozzle wall and
orifice.
Figure shows the highest pressure occurs
at the initial stage of the nozzle orifice and
after that decreases significantly.
This result is in fair agreement with the
same.

Spray modeling
For modeling the spray in fluent DPM (discrete phase model) and VOF
(volume of fluid) method is available.
DPM more suitable for spray that atomizes fast.
VOF model more suitable if the focus is the jet flow near the nozzle exit,
or if the jet has no significant breakup.

Assumptions in DPM
1. A discrete phase < 10% :
For this simulation I have considered 5% discrete phase.
2.Negligible particle/particle interactions:
Particle/ particle interaction has been neglected only particle to cell zone
interaction is being enable.
Spray involves breakup, evaporation, droplet-droplet interaction, and dropletcellzone interaction. Different Spray sub-models are required to simulate these
processes: injection/atomizer model.

Atomizer model
For this current setting I have selected Air-assist/Air-blast atomizers
over the two Pressure atomizers and Rotary atomizers.
After selecting the air-blast atomizer 1500 more iteration has been
carried out with 1s pseudo time step and results found.

Primary and Secondary

breakup and spray droplet
generation
Particle diameter
Maximum value :1.57 m
Minimum value : 1.20 m
Spray cone angle
Value : 45 degree

Results comparison
Serial no.

Range of the parameters Results obtained from

(as per the literatures)
the simulation
(Spray modeling)

Diameter of the droplet

0 70 m (generally in
case of Multiple hole
nozzle )

Spray cone angle

20- 45 degree (for

straight multiple hole
nozzle)

1.57 m - 1.20 m

45 degree

Results validation
Serial no.

Diameter of the droplet

Results obtained from the

simulation

1.57 m - 1.20 m

Theoratical calculation

1.58 m - 1.53 m

Conclusion
Following were the conclusion based on the above result which are obtained by CFD
simulation :
Model selected as coupled over Simple due to better pressure velocity coupling.
The pressure variation at interface shows that static pressure is maximum at the interface
to nozzle orifice and main body of nozzle.
The initial maximum diameter of the droplets is about 1.57 m and minimum
diameter is about 1.20 m. Value of the diameters indicates that there is a possibility
of good combustion inside the cylinder which directly improves the engine
performance.
Spray cone angle is 45 deg which is maximum in case of the multiple hole nozzle.

Future scope
One can go for various fuel (like bio-fuel) to obtain the droplet
according to above solver model.
One can change the no of hole and specification of the nozzle for the
same model with different fuel to compare the spray characteristic.
One may be able to obtain a more accurate solution by using an
appropriate higher-order discretization scheme.

References
1.

Arya Pirooz, Effects of injector nozzle geometry on spray characteristics, an analysis, Indian J.Sci.Res. 5 (1):
354-361, 2014

2.

Xiaorong Wang , Jinxin Zhang , Fei Yan, Bo Liu and Wenxian Tang, Simulation Research On Spray
Characteristics Of Diesel Engine, Archives Of Mechanical, Electrical And Civil Engineering Vol.2, No.1, 2015

3.

Prashanth K. Karra, Song-Charng Kong , Experimental study on effects of nozzle hole geometry on achieving
low diesel engine emissions, International journal of ASME, association 2010

4.

R. Payri , F. J. Salvador, J. Gimeno, J. de la Morena, Effects of nozzle hole geometry on direct injection diesel
engine combustion process, ASME-00637333, version 1 - 1 Nov 2010

5.

Gautam Kumar ,Spray behaviour comparison in diesel engine with biodiesel as a

fuel, Journal of Energy Technologies and Policy ISSN 2224-3232 (Paper) Vol.3, No.4, 2013

6.

Zhixia He, Wenjun Zhong, Qian Wang, Zhaochen Jiang, Zhuang Shao, Effects of nozzle
geometrical and dynamic factors on cavitating and turbulent flow in a diesel
multihole injector nozzle, International Journal of Thermal Sciences 132e143, 2013

7.

Balaji Mohan, Wenming Yang , Kun Lin Tay, Wenbin Yu, Experimental study of spray
characteristics of biodiesel derived from waste cooking oil ,International Journal of
Engineering Science and Technology, Vol.4, Issue 04, 2015

THANK YOU