Flow regime effects on non-cavitating injection nozzles over spray behavior

This paper deals with the influence of flow regime (laminar, transition or turbulent) on the internal flow behavior, and how it affects the spray development in diesel nozzles. In particular, the research described here aims at studying and quantifying the internal flow regime effects on the spray behavior. With this purpose, internal flow results, based on mass flow rate and momentum flux measurements performed on three different tapered nozzles and which helped to determine the flow regime, has been taken into account as a point of departure for the spray behavior analysis. Thus, in this work, spray macroscopic visualization tests have been performed and analyzed which clearly revealed a change in the behavior of the angle and penetration of the spray related to the change of the flow nature. Moreover, with all the experimental data available, it has been possible to relate macroscopic parameters of the spray with those describing the internal flow (momentum and effective velocity) or the geometry of the nozzle (length or diameter) through correlations. (c) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.