Spray Visualization of Biodiesel and Diesel in a High Pressure Chamber

The present research attempted to characterize fuel spray pattern, such as spray angle, spray penetration and their mixture formation by recourse to images analysis. Diesel and biodiesel were used to investigate via a single hole injector (solinoild type) in a constant volume high-pressure chamber. In this experimental study, the spray characteristics of diesel and biodiesel fuel were comparatively evaluated. Initial conditions were ambient temperature, ambient density of 21 kg/m3, injection durations varied from 0.5 and 1 ms and rail pressure of 400 and 800 bar. The series of images were captured by high speed video camera with resolution of 7,500 frames per second and shutter speed of 1/10,000 sec under Schlieren photography technique. The result showed the biodiesel spray penetration was longer than that of the diesel, and spray angle of biodiesel in start injection was larger than biodiesel. From the results, it can be concluded that the higher the density and viscosity of biodiesel, the stronger the effect on the spray mixture formation.