Characterization of fuel drop impact on wall films using SPH simulation

The ability to accurately predict the outcome of the drop/wall interaction is essential to engine spray combustion modeling. In this paper, the process of fuel drop impact on a wet wall was simulated using a numerical method based on smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH). The present numerical method was first validated using experimental data on the crown height and crown diameter resulting from water drop impact on a liquid film. Then, the impact process of iso-octane drops on wet walls under engine relevant conditions were studied. The presence of a wall film will affect not only the splash threshold but also the crown evolution and the secondary droplets ejected from the rim of the crown. Numerical results show that the splash threshold increases with the film thickness; the splashed mass ratio increases as the kinetic energy of the incident drop increases. The effect of film thickness on the splashed mass ratio is determined by two competing mechanisms. On the one hand, as the film thickness increases, more incident energy will be absorbed and transferred into the crown, thus producing more secondary droplets. On the other hand, more impinging energy will be dissipated during the spreading as the film thickness increases, thus generating fewer secondary droplets. The properties of the secondary droplets are very different as the film thickness increases. Instead of moving outward, the secondary droplets will move upward and even congregate to the center when the film becomes thicker. The impact angle will affect not only the distributions of the secondary droplets but also the splashed mass. The locations and velocities of the secondary droplets were analyzed. These outcomes were incorporated into formulas that can be further developed into a model for simulating engine spray/wall interactions.