Atomization and mixing performance of swirl-venturi lean direct injection

<p>This paper investigated the effects of swirl number and momentum ratio on the atomization and mixing performance of Swirl-Venturi Lean Direct Injection technology. Mie scattering of liquid water, was used to identify the location of water droplets in a cross section of the injector spray. Experiments were performed with three air swirlers with vane angles of 45, 52 and 60 degrees. The swirl number varied from 0.58 to 1.0 and air-to-liquid ratios from 15.8 to 35.6. A transition was observed in the liquid spray distribution for the 52 degree case, which unexpectedly produced twice as much signal than the 45 and 60 degree cases. The main cause of this increased signal may be due to instabilities in the flow when transitioning from low to high swirl states. The results from investigation of swirl number it was found that the spray pattern for is sensitive to swirl intensity. Two flow states were observed for a lower and higher swirl flow as well as a transition state that occurred with the lower swirl state. This work may aid in the specific inquiry of physical mechanisms relating to the effect of flow states on spray distribution. It is found that improved atomization and mixing performance are a result of increase in swirl number.</p>