Experimental research and numerical simulation of high-pressure swirl injection using methanol and ethanol

High-pressure swirl injection using methanol and ethanol was studied with experiments and numerical simulation. Experiments show that swirl injection of methanol and ethanol has the same trend as that of gasoline: under low back pressure the spray is a hollow cone and spread widely with initial spray at the tip, while the spray is a solid cone under higher back pressure. Swirls in opposite direction exist on both sides of the spray, locating at the middle-rear part of the spray under low back pressure while it is in the middle part under high back pressure. Experiments also showed that methanol has the biggest cone angle, ethanol and gasoline have almost the same cone angle. Numerical simulation indicated that for swirl injection, methanol and ethanol have a little larger SMD than that of gasoline. The SMD curves of methanol coincide with those of ethanol under low back pressure, but gives a little larger value under higher back pressure due to the evaporation. Numerical simulation also clearly demonstrates the swirling phenomena of the high-pressure swirl injection.