Computational Prediction of the Effect of Microcavitation on an Atomization Mechanism in a Gasoline Injector Nozzle

The effect of microcavitation on the 3D structure of the liquid atomization process in a gasoline injector nozzle was numerically investigated and visualized by a new integrated computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technique for application in the automobile industry. The present CFD analysis focused on the primary breakup phenomenon of liquid atomization which is closely related to microcavitation, the consecutive formation of liquid film, and the generation of droplets by a lateral flow in the outlet section of the nozzle. Governing equations for a high-speed lateral atomizing injector nozzle flow taking into account the microcavitation generation based on the barotropic large eddy simulation-volume of fluid model in conjunction with the continuum surface force model were developed, and then an integrated parallel computation was performed to clarify the detailed atomization process coincident with the microcavitation of a high-speed nozzle flow. Furthermore, data on such factors as the volume fraction of microcavities, atomization length, liquid core shapes, droplet-size distribution, spray angle, and droplet velocity profiles, which are difficult to confirm by experiment, were acquired. According to the present analysis, the atomization rate and the droplets-gas atomizing flow characteristics were found to be controlled by the generation of microcavitation coincident with the primary breakup caused by the turbulence perturbation upstream of the injector nozzle, hydrodynamic instabilities at the gas-liquid interface, and shear stresses between the liquid core and periphery of the jet. Furthermore, it was found that the energy of vorticity close to the gas-liquid interface was converted to energy for microcavity generation or droplet atomization.