Inspection of Large Droplets in Fuel Sprays Using a Gaussian Laser-Sheet: An Experimental Approach

A laser sheet imaging system was developed for the investigation of high-speed fuel sprays under a relatively low injection pressure (less than 1 MPa). A pulsed laser and high-resolution CCD cameras were used for the evaluation of the fuel injection system of a small IC engine. Large droplets were detected during the injection incident, with a variation in the scattered light pattern from one droplet to another. The light scattering pattern of individual droplets was investigated in order to study the interaction between the laser beam and large fluid droplets compared to the wavelength. A laser sheet, with a wide waist Gaussian profile, was used for illumination, so that the relative position of a droplet in the third dimension of the field of view (FOV) can be estimated from the 2D-image. Light scattering images were processed in order to closely investigate the structure of the fuel droplets, and the behaviour of the laser beam when encountering large droplets (0.2–1.4 mm). The Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) method was applied on the double exposure spray images to calculate the droplet velocity distribution of the global spray, using a high temporal resolution (15 s).