Engine Combustion Network “Spray G”: Wall heat transfer characterization by infrared thermography

Nowadays, several efforts are being made to design more efficient, cleaner, and economically accessible engines. Spray-wall interactions are strongly related with the fuel–air mixture and emission formation. As such, they are considered as the most important physical processes in engine research. In the present study, the infrared thermography coupled with an inverse heat transfer data reduction is applied to evaluate the wall heat transfer of an iso-octane spray generated by a multi-hole gasoline direct injector (Spray G) impinging on a heated thin foil. The experimental apparatus includes an Invar foil (50 μm in thickness) heated by Joule effect and the injector located at 66.66 injector nozzle diameter above the surface. Thermal images of the impinging spray are acquired from the dry side of the foil at several time delays from the start of injection at two different injection pressures (10 and 20 MPa) and two different wall temperatures (373 and 473 K). The experimental data are reduced in the dimensionless form in terms of the spray cooling efficiency ξ, which represents the ratio between the spray cooling heat flux and the heat transfer capability of the fluid, by taking into account the area of impact of the spray. Results show a substantial increment of the heat flux and the spray cooling efficiency by increasing the wall temperature. Also, the increment of the injection pressure has an increasing effect on the area of impact, the heat flux, and the efficiency of the spray for both wall temperatures investigated in the experimental campaign. The spray cone angle and the plume jet axis angle were also estimated from the wall heat flux distribution.