Effect of spray impingement distance on piston top fuel adhesion in direct injection gasoline engines

Direct injection is an attractive technology for improving fuel economy and engine performance in gasoline engines. However, the adhered fuel formed on the piston surface has significant influence on the combustion efficiency and emissions. To obtain a better understanding of fuel adhesion, this work involved investigation of the spray and impingement on a flat wall through a mini-sac injector with a single hole. Different impingement distances and injection pressures were investigated. The evolution of the impinging spray was obtained by the Mie scattering method. The refractive index matching method was applied to measure fuel adhesion. The mass, area, and thickness of adhesion under different conditions were compared. The experimental results show that the fuel adhesion on the wall increases significantly with a large impingement distance. Moreover, the maximum thickness increases and the thickness uniformity of the fuel adhesion declines under a large impingement distance condition.