Analysis of the combined effect of hydrogrinding process and inclination angle on hydraulic performance of diesel injection nozzles

Abstract

A computational study to investigate the influence of the orifices inclination and the rounding radius at the orifice inlet (consequence of the hydro-erosive grinding process applied after the orifices machining) over the internal nozzle flow is performed in this paper. The study starts with the analysis of experimental results where the mass flow and momentum flux of two nozzles with very different values of these two variables are compared. This analysis shows relatively small differences in terms of mass flow and momentum flux, since the higher losses associated to the higher deflection of the streamlines with a higher inclination of the orifices are counteracted by the higher rounding radius, which favors the flow entrance to the orifice. To explain this experimental outcome, an extensive computational study involving nine geometries that combine different inclination angles and rounding radius is conducted, in order to quantify the influence of both parameters on the flow separately, as well as to assess the potential of their combination. These geometries are compared in terms of discharge coefficient, critical cavitation conditions and effective injection velocity, among others. Results show differences up to 15% in terms of mass flow rate and 8% for the effective injection velocity among the two extreme cases (lowest inclination and highest hydro-erosion level versus the nozzle with the highest inclination and lowest hydro-erosion level). Given the importance of these phenomena on the subsequent mixing and combustion processes, the results hereby presented are of interest for Diesel engines injectors and combustion chambers designers.