Master Thesis Project

Title: Development of Fuel Spray Visualization Test Rig

Progress Report
February 4, 2019
 1. Engine Combustion Network
The ECN is an international collaboration among experimental and computational researchers in
engine combustion, with partners listed below. Our objectives are to:
 Establish an internet library of well-documented experiments that are appropriate for
model validation and the advancement of scientific understanding of combustion at
conditions specific to engines.
 Provide a framework for collaborative comparisons of measured and modelled results.
 Identify priorities for further experimental and computational research.
The focus of the ECN has been targeted diesel and gasoline sprays, but the activity is expanding
to include engine datasets.
Some of the ECN partners are listed below:
 Sandia National Laboratory
 IFP Energies Nouvelles
 CMT Motores Térmicos
 RWTH Aachen University, etc.

2. Facilities available in various institutes

2.1 Sandia National laboratory:

Figure 1. Combustion vessel at Sandia National Laboratory

The vessel has a cubical-shaped combustion chamber. The characteristic dimension of the cube is
108 mm. Each side of the combustion chamber has a round port with a diameter of 105 mm. The
fuel injector is located in one side port using a metal insert that forms the right wall of the
combustion chamber. Two spark plugs and a mixing fan are mounted in another metal insert that
forms the top wall of the chamber. Optical access is provided by four sapphire windows with clear
apertures of 102 mm located in the other four ports. For wall heat transfer modelling purposes,
the steel vessel and metal inserts for the injector and spark plugs are made of 4340 steel.
Temperature: upto 1400 K
Pressure: upto 350 bar (35 Mpa)

2.2 RWTH Aachen

The chamber can be operated with gas pressures of up to 150 bar and temperatures up to 1000
K. The chamber is equipped with 3 quartz windows with a diameter of 127 mm.

Figure 2. High Pressure Injection Chamber in RWTH Aachen (Institute of Combustion Engines)

A constant volume, constant flow rate, high pressure and temperature chamber is also used to
study fuel spray characteristics and combustion details. It is built at the Institute of Combustion
technology (ITV) at RWTH Aachen university. It is shown in figure 3.
S

Figure 3. Spray Chamber at RWTH Aachen

2.3 CMT Motores Térmicos

A continuous flow facility is available at CMT- Motores Thermicos to perform optical
measurements under controlled condition. The test rig works at high pressure and high
temperature, up to 950 K and 150 bars. It is shown in figure 4.
 Figure 4. High pressure, high temperature test rig

2.4 Sphere Lab, Georgia Tech

A high-temperature high-pressure spray chamber is under construction and will stand as the
flagship research facility at the SPhERe Lab. The optically-accessible chamber will allow for a wide
range of laser diagnostics to be employed for probing fuel spray physics and chemistry in simulated
gasoline and diesel engine environments. The chamber offers a highly-controlled, flexible
combustion environment ideal for fundamental investigations and/or model development and
validation. The operating pressures is from 5 – 100 bar, and temperatures from 300 – 1000 K.
These ranges cover current and future engine operating condition trends, including highly-boosted
multi-injection conditions.

Figure 5. continuous flow high pressure temperature spray chamber at Georgia Tech
 3. Design of pressure vessel window:

3.1 Material selection

The underlying design criteria for selecting the optimal optical material type are:
a. useful transmittance range
b. operating temperature and mechanical load
c. Electromagnetic radiation to be investigated
d. Cost
Some practical optical material that can be used in a pressure vessel are fused quartz and silica,
Sapphire, Magnesium Fluoride. Sapphire and Magnesium Fluoride are expensive.
Optical material properties are listed in the figure below.

Figure 5. Optimal material properties

3.2 Mounting methods

A mounting method can be selected considering the geometric constraints, the sealing
requirements, position accuracy, the orientation of optical axis, stress and the deformation caused
by pressure difference.
a. Optical element kept in place by a guided clamp.
This is shown in figure 6. The retainer is fitted and guided in the direction of displacement of the
optical element.

Figure 6. Mounting of an optical element

 b. Other mounting methods for high pressure application
In figure 7, the picture above is a 90˚ conical window. The retainer presses the Neoprene gasket
and constraint the window.
In the view below, the window is sealed with an o ring along its rim. A retainer ring keep the
window in place.

Figure 7. Mounting details for high pressure applications

3.3 Mechanical performance

a. Allowable or design stress
The allowable or design stress is calculated by dividing the tensile strength of the material by the
safety factor. The safety factor for optical element should always exceed 4.
b. Geometric and mechanical tolerances
The geometrical tolerance on the diameter and thickness of the optical element is comparable to
general precision manufacturing, typically h6 to h11. The parallelism requirements are also on the
fine side. The surface roughness values are in a couple of order less than the typical values for
precision manufacturing for metals. The quality of finish is further described by the scratch and
dig number.
c. Deflection and stress
Minimum thickness of the optical element for an allowable stress is
1
1 𝐾𝑤×𝑆𝐹 ×∆𝑝 2
𝑡𝑚𝑖𝑛 = (2 𝐷) [ 𝛿 𝛿 ] (1)
𝑑𝑒𝑠

Minimum thickness of the optical element for a maximum allowed deflection is

 1/3
𝑆𝐹𝑥 ×𝐾𝑤 ×∆𝑝×𝐷 4
𝑡𝑚𝑖𝑛 = [ ] (2)
16 𝐸 𝑥𝑚𝑎𝑥

𝑡𝑚𝑖𝑛 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑚𝑢𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑐𝑘𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑜𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡

𝑆𝐹𝛿 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑆𝐹𝑥 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑎𝑓𝑒𝑡𝑦 𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑠
𝐾𝑊 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑠𝑢𝑝𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑠 𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑡𝑜 0.75
𝐷 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑚𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑜𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡
𝛿𝑑𝑒𝑠 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠
∆𝑝 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑑 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒
𝐸 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑔′𝑠 𝑚𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑙𝑢𝑠
𝑥𝑚𝑎𝑥 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑥𝑖𝑚𝑢𝑚 𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑑 𝑑𝑒𝑓𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑜𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡
In general, as 𝑆𝐹𝛿 is associated with complete breakdown and failure and 𝑆𝐹𝑥 influences only the
quality of the image produced by the optical element.

References:

[1] Balazs Ihracska, Roy James Crookes, Diogo Montalvão, Mohammad Reza Herfatmanesh,
Zhijun Peng, Shahid Imran, Theodosios Korakianitis. Opto-mechanical design for sight windows
under high loads. Materials and designs.
[2] Paul R. Yoder, Jr. Mounting optics in optical instruments. Second Edition