Large Eddy Simulation of the internal injector flow during pilot injection

The aim of this work is to simulate the internal flow of a Diesel injector during an entire pilot injection event. In common rail systems a small quantity of fuel can be injected before the main injection is started. This increases the temperature in the combustion chamber and improves the combustion, leading to higher engine efficiency and reduced emissions. The internal nozzle flow during this short event is highly dynamic and vapor cavities may appear at the end of the injection. In order to study the flow characteristics, a numerical methodology based on the Eulerian multi-fluid approach is adopted. The filtered Navier-Stokes equations are discretized with the finite volume method and then solved with an implicit pressure-based solver. The flow field is modelled considering single pressure and velocity fields. The Coherent Structure Model is used to derive the eddy viscosity applied to the Large Eddy Simulation approach. The liquid evaporation rate is evaluated with a cavitation model based on the Rayleigh-Plesset equation for a single bubble. Even though thermodynamic equilibrium is not satisfied a priori, the main parameter is adjusted in order to limit the thermodynamic states to be in a range close to the equilibrium conditions. The liquid compressibility is modelled with a linear correlation between pressure and density variations. The needle longitudinal movement obtained from the experiments is applied to the simulation. The adopted geometry is the Spray A case defined by the Engine Combustion Network. It is an asymmetric single hole Diesel injector that has been extensively studied in the past both experimentally and numerically. The injection pressure is 1,500 [bar] and the ambient pressure is 60 [bar] with a fuel temperature of 363 K inside the injector. Pure n-dodecane is used as fluid in order to have a precise specification of the physical properties. Although both experiments and simulations showed no cavitation for completely open needle at fixed position, recent studies demonstrated that phase-change of the liquid can appear during the needle closing phase. Cavitation erosion prone locations are then evaluated by recording the maximum intensity of pressure on the surface