Gregor Rottenkolber

A Combined Eulerian and Lagrangian Method for Prediction of Evaporating Sprays

Polydisperse sprays in complex three-dimensional flow systems are important in many technical applications. Numerical descriptions of sprays are used to achieve a fast and accurate prediction of complex two-phase flows. The Eulerian and Lagrangian methods are two essentially different approaches for the modeling of disperse two-phase flows. Both methods have been implemented into the same computational fluid dynamics package which is based on a three-dimensional body-fitted finite volume method. Considering sprays represented by a small number of droplet starting conditions, the Eulerian method is clearly superior in terms of computational efficiency. However, with respect to complex polydisperse sprays, the Lagrangian technique gives a higher accuracy. In addition, Lagrangian modeling of secondary effects such as spray-wall interaction enhances the physical description of the two-phase flow. Therefore, in the present approach the Eulerian and the Lagrangian methods have been combined in a hybrid method. The Eulerian method is used to determine a preliminary solution of the two-phase flow field. Subsequently, the Lagrangian method is employed to improve the accuracy of the first solution using detailed sets of initial conditions. Consequently, this combined approach improves the overall convergence behavior of the simulation. In the final section, the advantages of each method are discussed when predicting an evaporating spray in an intake manifold of an internal combustion engine.

Combined “Fluorescence” LDV (FLDV) and PDA Technique for Non‐ambiguous Two Phase Measurements Inside the Spray of a SI‐Engine

Laser velocimetry measurements in the vicinity of reflecting surfaces are still a major problem in many fluid mechanical applications such as measuring close to walls or wall film surfaces, respectively. Moreover, in any kind of two phase flow an unambiguous separation of the gas and the liquid phase is of particular interest. Commonly used techniques like Phase Doppler Analyzers (PDA) with size discrimination are limited to two phase flows where the smallest particle of the dispersed phase is significantly larger than the seeding particles. This condition can rarely be fulfilled in technically relevant spray/air systems for instance in automobile engines or gas turbines. One of the most promising approaches to overcome this problem is a correct phase discrimination using fluorescent tracer particles for the gas phase. In this paper different laser based velocimeters have been compared using the spray of a gasoline injection nozzle as a typical example. The working principle of the “fluorescence” LDV (FLDV) will be explained in detail. Moreover, the quality of the fluorescence signals and of the standard bursts received from Mie-scattering particles will be compared. Finally, the capabilities of combined FLDV and PDA measurements inside the spray of a SI-engine at unsteady conditions will be presented. The pros and cons of this technique will be discussed against the background of discriminatory two phase PIV measurements applied to the same spray.

Phase discrimination inside a spray: LDV measurements using fluorescent seeding particles (FLDV)

Laser Velocimetry measurements in the vicinity of reflecting surfaces are still a major problem in many fluid mechanical applications such as measuring close to walls or wall film surfaces, respectively. Moreover, in any kind of two phase flow an unambiguous separation of the gas and the liquid phase is of particular interest. Commonly used techniques like Phase Doppler Analysers (PDA) with size discrimination are limited to two phase flows where the smallest particle of the dispersed phase is significantly larger than the seeding particles. This condition can rarely be fulfilled in technically relevant spray/air systems. One of the most promising approaches is a phase discrimination using fluorescent tracer particles for the gas phase. In this paper the working principle of the “fluorescent” LDV (FLDV) will be explained. Moreover, the applicability of different fluorescent dyes will be discussed. Finally, a comparison between PDA results using size discrimination and FLDV results inside a hollow cone spray will be presented.