Effect of Various Injection Pressures on Spray Characteristics of Karanja Oil Methyl Ester (KOME) and Diesel in a DI Diesel Engine

The performance and emissions from diesel engines are greatly influenced by the degree of atomization of the fuel spray. The characteristics of the spray affect the physics of formation of the air-fuel mixture. They depend on density and viscosity of fuel, injection pressure, pressure and temperature of fuel. The spray structure is primarily dependent on the fuel injection pressure. This study involves the carrying out of experimental investigations on biodiesel and diesel fuel sprays in a DI diesel engine for different injection pressures. The spray cone angle and spray tip penetration length are studied experimentally. Using spray visualization system and image processing techniques, the experimental data is obtained. The fuels used are Karanja oil methyl ester (KOME) and diesel. The experimental results show that, as the injection pressure increases, the spray cone angle decreases for KOME and similar trends are observed with diesel. In addition, spray penetration length increases with increase in injection pressure and the value of the same was slightly higher for KOME than that of diesel. The results also reveal similarities in spray characteristics of both the test fuels.