Daniel Duke

High-resolution large eddy simulations of cavitating gasoline–ethanol blends

Cavitation plays an important role in the formation of sprays in fuel injection systems. With the increasing use of gasoline–ethanol blends, there is a need to understand how changes in fluid properties due to the use of these fuels can alter cavitation behavior. Gasoline–ethanol blends are azeotropic mixtures whose properties are difficult to model. We have tabulated the thermodynamic properties of gasoline–ethanol blends using a method developed for flash-boiling simulations. The properties of neat gasoline and ethanol were obtained from National Institute of Standards and Technology REFPROP data, and blends from 0% to 85% ethanol by mass have been tabulated. We have undertaken high-resolution three-dimensional numerical simulations of cavitating flow in a 500-µm-diameter submerged nozzle using the in-house HRMFoam homogeneous relaxation model constructed from the OpenFOAM toolkit. The simulations are conducted at 1 MPa inlet pressure and atmospheric outlet pressure, corresponding to a cavitation number range of 1.066–1.084 and a Reynolds number range of 15,000–40,000. For the pure gasoline case, the numerical simulations are compared with synchrotron X-ray radiography measurements. Despite significant variation in the fluid properties, the distribution of cavitation vapor in the nozzle is relatively unaffected by the gasoline–ethanol ratio. The vapor remains attached to the nozzle wall, resulting in an unstable annular two-phase jet in the outlet. Including turbulence at the conditions studied does not significantly change mixing behavior, because the thermal nonequilibrium at the vapor–liquid interfaces acts to low-pass filter the turbulent fluctuations in both the nozzle boundary layer and jet mixing layer.

A novel high-speed imaging technique to predict the macroscopic spray characteristics of solution based pressurised metered dose inhalers

ABSTRACTPurposeNon-volatile agents such as glycerol are being introduced into solution-based pMDI formulations in order to control mean precipitant droplet size. To assess their biopharmaceutical efficacy, both microscopic and macroscopic characteristics of the plume must be known, including the effects of external factors such as the flow generated by the patient’s inhalation. We test the hypothesis that the macroscopic properties (e.g. spray geometry) of a pMDI spray can be predicted using a self-similarity model, avoiding the need for repeated testing.MethodsGlycerol-containing and glycerol-free pMDI formulations with matched mass median aerodynamic diameters are investigated. High-speed schlieren imaging is used to extract time-resolved velocity, penetration and spreading angle measurements of the pMDI spray plume. The experimental data are used to validate the analytical model.ResultsThe pMDI spray develops in a manner characteristic of a fully-developed steady turbulent jet, supporting the hypothesis. Equivalent glycerol-containing and non glycerol-containing formulations exhibit similar non-dimensional growth rates and follow a self-similar scaling behaviour over a range of physiologically relevant co-flow rates.ConclusionsUsing the proposed model, the mean leading edge penetration, velocity and spreading rate of a pMDI spray may be estimated a priori for any co-flow conditions. The effects of different formulations are captured in two scaling constants. This allows formulators to predict the effects of variation between pMDIs without the need for repeated testing. Ultimately, this approach will allow pharmaceutical scientists to rapidly test a number of variables during pMDI development.

X-ray Diagnostics for Cavitating Nozzle Flow

Cavitation plays a critical role in the internal flow of nozzles such as those used in direct fuel injection systems. However, quantifying the vapor fraction in the nozzle is difficult. The gas-liquid interfaces refract and multiply scatter visible light, making quantitative extinction measurements difficult. X-rays offer a solution to this problem, as they refract and scatter only weakly. In this paper, we report on current progress in the development of several x-ray diagnostics for cavitating nozzle flows. X-ray radiography experiments undertaken at the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory have provided measurements of total projected void fraction in a 500 μm submerged nozzle, which have been directly compared with numerical simulations. From this work, it has been shown that dissolved gases in the liquid also result in the formation of vapor regions, and it is difficult to separate these multiple phenomena. To address this problem, the liquid was doped with an x-ray fluorescent bromine tracer, and the dissolved air substituted with krypton. The fluorescent emission of Br and Kr at x-ray wavelengths provide a novel measurement of both the total void fraction and the dissolved gas component, allowing both cavitation and dissolved gas contributions to be measured independently. [199/200 words]

Investigation of wall-bounded turbulent flow using Dynamic mode decomposition

Dynamics mode decomposition (DMD) which is a method to construct a linear mapping describing the dynamics of a given time-series of any quantities is applied to the analysis of a turbulent channel flow. The flow fields are generated by direct numerical simulations for the friction Reynolds number Re? = 190. The time-series of the flow fields in a short time-interval in the order of the wall-unit time-scale and in a small spatial domain that encloses a single near-wall structure are used as the inputs to DMD. In some datasets, linearly growing modes that seem to contribute to the well-known self-sustained cycle of the flow structures near the wall are detected.

Measuring shear layer growth rates in aeroacoustically forced axisymmetric supersonic jets

Underexpanded jets at a single pressure ratio and Reynolds number are studied in their free and impinging conditions. The influence of different kinds of aeroacoustic self-forcing is studied through Proper Orthogonal Decomposition and Dynamic Mode Decomposition analysis of high resolution Particle Image Velocimetry data. The free jet is primarily characterized by the presence of a strong helical instability, though a weaker axisymmetric instability is also present. The impinging jet shear layer is dominated by a fast-growing axisymmetric instability, with a weaker helical instability also evident. Ultra-high-speed schlieren imaging reveals a much more rapid instability growth close to the nozzle for the impinging jet case. Analysis of the streamwise growth rates via DMD suggests that the shear layer instability grows more than twice as fast in the near-nozzle region for the impinging jet. Further downstream the growth rate in the free jet case is higher.

Computational and Experimental Investigation of Interfacial Area in Near-Field Diesel Spray Simulation

Authors acknowledge that part of this work was partially funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness in the frame of the COMEFF (TRA2014-59483-R) project.

X-ray radiography of cavitation in a beryllium alloy nozzle

Making quantitative measurements of the vapor distribution in a cavitating nozzle is difficult, owing to the strong scattering of visible light at gas–liquid boundaries and wall boundaries, and the small lengths and time scales involved. The transparent models required for optical experiments are also limited in terms of maximum pressure and operating life. Over the past few years, x-ray radiography experiments at Argonne’s Advanced Photon Source have demonstrated the ability to perform quantitative measurements of the line of sight projected vapor fraction in submerged, cavitating plastic nozzles. In this paper, we present the results of new radiography experiments performed on a submerged beryllium nozzle which is 520 μm in diameter, with a length/diameter ratio of 6. Beryllium is a light, hard metal that is very transparent to x-rays due to its low atomic number. We present quantitative measurements of cavitation vapor distribution conducted over a range of non-dimensional cavitation and Reynolds numbers, up to values typical of gasoline and diesel fuel injectors. A novel aspect of this work is the ability to quantitatively measure the area contraction along the nozzle with high spatial resolution. Analysis of the vapor distribution, area contraction and discharge coefficients are made between the beryllium nozzle and plastic nozzles of the same nominal geometry. When gas is dissolved in the fuel, the vapor distribution can be quite different from that found in plastic nozzles of the same dimensions, although the discharge coefficients are unaffected. In the beryllium nozzle, there were substantially fewer machining defects to act as nucleation sites for the precipitation of bubbles from dissolved gases in the fuel, and as such the effect on the vapor distribution was greatly reduced.

Numerical investigation of liquid jet breakup and droplet statistics with comparison to X-ray radiography

In direct injection engines, the jet primary and secondary breakup processes have a significant influence on the fuel/air mixture formation and drop-size distribution directly affecting the fuel conversion efficiency and combustion characteristics. In this work the disintegration process of turbulent liquid jets from a realistic diesel injector issuing into a still environment is investigated numerically using a coupled liquid/gas interface capturing technique and a high-fidelity DNS/LES approach. This study is aimed at assessing the influence of NJFCP aviation jet fuel mixtures on the disintegration and droplet-size spray characteristics at simulated diesel operating conditions. For this purpose, an unstructured unsplit Volume-of-Fluid method is employed in conjunction with a realistic diesel injector geometry to simulate the pulsed jet disintegration and breakup process. Flow and droplet PDF statistics are extracted to demonstrate the impact of physical properties (A2, C3 fuel) on the mixing behavior and droplet distribution. The simulations are compared against X-ray radiography volume fraction measurements from Argonne National Laboratory and also serve as numerical benchmarks for calibration of lower fidelity models.

High-resolution X-ray tomography of engine combustion network diesel injectors:

The flow inside direct-injection diesel nozzles is strongly influenced by the local geometry. Deviations from the design geometry and nonuniformities along the fuel’s flow path can alter the expected spray behavior. The influence of small-scale variations in the internal geometry is not well understood due to a lack of data available to experimentalists and modelers that resolve such features. To address the need for more accurate geometry measurements that also quantify the error bounds on manufacturing variability, the 7-BM beamline of the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory has been customized to obtain high-resolution X-ray tomography of injection nozzles. In this article, we present results for several diesel injectors provided by the Engine Combustion Network. The imaging setup was optimized to measure dense metallic samples at high signal-to-noise ratio using projection imaging. To improve contrast, multiple images were recorded at each rotation angle. Phase shifting effects, which amplify the uncertainty in locating nozzle boundaries, were minimized by reducing the propagation distance of the X-rays between the nozzle and detector. Such improvements to the imaging technique enabled the nozzle hole diameter to be measured with an accuracy of 1.8 µm, which takes into account the pixel resolution as well as the properties of the imaging setup and the geometric analysis. The high spatial resolution allows the nozzle hole inlet corner radius to be azimuthally resolved. For the sample set under consideration, these new measurements reveal that non-hydroground injectors have a distribution of radii which typically vary by more than a factor of two. An azimuthally varying radius of curvature at the hole inlet is expected to result in highly asymmetric cavitation. Skeletal wireframe models of the nozzle hole geometries suitable for computational fluid dynamics mesh generation have been developed, in addition to full three-dimensional isosurfaces; these data have been made publicly available online.

A study on the relationship between internal nozzle geometry and injected mass distribution of eight ECN Spray G nozzles.

This research was performed at the 7-BM beamline of the APS at Argonne National Laboratory. Use of the APS is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357. We gratefully acknowledge the computing resources provided on Blues, a high-performance computing cluster operated by the Laboratory Computing Resource Center at Argonne National Laboratory. We thank Dr. Doga Gursoy for the use of TomoPy and corresponding user support, as well as Dr. Xianghui Xiao at the APS 2-BM beamline for technical guidance in performing x-ray tomography. Argonne’s x-ray fuel injection research is sponsored by the DOE Vehicle Technologies Program under the direction of Gurpreet Singh and Leo Breton.