Fuel injectors

Fuel injectors are used in the automotive industry and aerospace industry to control the volume of fuel injected into an engine’s combustion chamber. The amount of fuel is controlled by the valve opening time. This is typically between 0.2 and 10ms, which can make spray droplet size measurements challenging.

The performance of a fuel injector is affected by the droplet size produced. The ideal droplet size is a balance between smaller droplets increasing the rate of vaporization, and larger droplets improving penetration into the cylinder head.

Malvern Panalytical’s systems for spray particle sizing and imaging can be used to characterize fuel injection systems. These measurement techniques can be used to:

• Acquire high speed (10 kHz) droplet size data (with a range of measurement triggering options).
• Measure droplet size profiles for multiple pulses in a single experiment.
  • Create average droplet size profiles.
  • Assess pulse to pulse variability.
• Detect foreign particles to prevent nozzle wear.