An Investigation of Real-Gas and Multiphase Effects on Multicomponent Diesel Sprays 2020-01-0240

Lagrangian spray modeling represents a critical boundary condition for multidimensional simulations of in-cylinder flow structure, mixture formation and combustion in internal combustion engines. Segregated models for injection, breakup, collision and vaporization are usually employed to pass appropriate momentum, mass, and energy source terms to the gas-phase solver. Careful calibration of each sub-model generally produces appropriate results. Yet, the predictiveness of this modeling approach has been questioned by recent experimental observations, which showed that at trans- and super-critical conditions relevant to diesel injection, classical atomization and vaporization behavior is replaced by a mixing-controlled phase transition process of a dense fluid. In this work, we assessed the shortcomings of classical spray modeling with respect to real-gas and phase-change behavior, employing a multicomponent phase equilibrium solver and liquid-jet theory. A Peng-Robinson Equation of State (PR-EoS) model was implemented, and EoS-neutral thermodynamics derivatives were introduced in the FRESCO CFD platform turbulent NS solver. A phase equilibrium solver based on Gibbs free energy minimization was implemented to test phase stability and to compute phase equilibrium. Zero-dimensional flash calculations were employed to validate the solver with single- and multi-component fuels, at conditions relevant to diesel injection. The validation showed that 2-phase mixture temperature in the jet core can deviate up to 40K from the single-phase solution. Surface equilibrium with Raoult’s law employed for drop vaporization calculation was observed to deviate up to 100% from the actual multiphase real-gas behavior. Liquid-jet spray structure in high pressure fuel injection CFD calculations was modeled using an equilibrium-phase (EP) Lagrangian injection model, where liquid fuel mass is released to the Eulerian liquid phase, assuming phase-equilibrium in every cell. Comparison to state-of-the-art modeling featuring KH-RT breakup and multicomponent fuel vaporization highlighted the superior predictive capabilities of the EP model in capturing liquid spray structure at several conditions with limited calibration efforts.