Experimental and Numerical Investigation on the Macroscopic Characteristics of Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) Spray

The macroscopic characteristics of Hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), a renewable biodiesel, were investigated by both experimental and numerical approaches in this paper. The experiment on spray of 0.6ms injection duration was conducted in a constant volume vessel (CVV) at 1800 bar common rail pressure, 70 bar ambient pressure and 100°C ambient temperature, and the numerical work with the Wave breakup model and RNG k-ϵ turbulence model was done on a corresponding 2D geometric model at the same condition. The results indicated that the spray tip penetration grew with a decreasing tip velocity and the cone angle increased gradually after a dramatic growth and slight drop. Moreover, the prediction of numerical method, when used in conjunction with experimental studies, was proven effective in elucidating the macroscopic characteristics of HVO spray. The error between the predicted spray tip penetration and the experimental one was no more than 4% except that within 0.2ms flow time after SOI. In addition, the predicted cone angle was in similar trend to the experimental one and the error was within 10% after 0.2 ms.