Date of Award

Spring 2000

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering

Program/Concentration

Mechanical Engineering

Committee Director

A. Sidney Roberts, Jr.

Committee Member

Sushil K. Chaturvedi

Committee Member

Taj O. Mohieldin

Committee Member

Arthur C. Taylor

Call Number for Print

Special Collections; LD4331.E56 W47

Abstract

In 1997, Siemens Automotive in Newport News, Virginia, conducted mass flow experiments on their DEKA IV natural gas fuel injector using nitrogen gas as the test fluid. The mass flow rates measured from the steady state flow experiments increased linearly with increasing upstream reservoir pressure. This relationship in the experimental data suggested that a choked flow condition must exist somewhere inside the injector.

To test this hypothesis, nitrogen gas flow through the internal passages of a fuel injector at steady state was simulated using computational fluid dynamics software. Several numerical models were constructed. Axisymmetric two-dimensional models were constructed of the needle and seat area based on a prototype drawing of the test injector. Body-fitted curvilinear grids were mapped to each geometry. The models were then used to predict the effects of compressibility, turbulence, changing pressure boundary conditions, grid size and geometry on the flow solution. Predictions from the numerical models were compared to actual measured values obtained from the steady state flow experiments. Data from the numerical models agreed with the experimental findings of choked flow conditions in the exit orifice of the injector. Details of the internal flow field are presented.

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DOI

10.25777/fjdf-ka65

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