Modelling of high-pressure dense diesel sprays with adaptive local grid refinement

An Eulerian–Lagrangian fluid dynamics model simulating the development of dense liquid plumes formed during injection of fuels against compressed air is described and assessed against experimental data. The numerical model employs an adaptive local grid refinement methodology combined with a calculation procedure distributing the mass, momentum and energy exchanged between the liquid and gaseous phases in the numerical cells found in the vicinity of the moving droplets. The use of appropriate weighting functions resolves numerical as well as physical problems realised when the interaction volume available between the two phases is limited to the cell-containing parcel, whose volume may become comparable to that of the dispersed phase. Calculation of ‘virtual’ cell properties provide better estimates for the flow variables realised by the droplets crossing cells in the wake of those upstream and allows for larger time steps to be employed in the solution of the carrier phase conservation equations. The results suggest that the proposed methodology offers significant improvements compared to the standard Lagrangian one frequently adopted in simulation of combustion systems, without the need to use Eulerian flow models in dense spray regions.