A computational investigation on the influence of the use of elliptical orifices on the inner nozzle flow and cavitation development in diesel injector nozzles

Highlights: • The influence of elliptical orifices on the inner nozzle flow is compared. • Five nozzles with different elliptical and circular orifices are simulated. • Differences in the flow coefficients and cavitation morphology are observed. • Horizontal axis orifices are ease to cavitate, with a higher discharge coefficient. • A better mixing process quality is expected for the horizontal major axis nozzles. - Abstract: In this paper a computational study was carried out in order to investigate the influence of the use of elliptical orifices on the inner nozzle flow and cavitation development. With this aim, a large number of injection conditions have been simulated and analysed for 5 different nozzles: four nozzles with different elliptical orifices and one standard nozzle with circular orifices. The four elliptical nozzles differ from each other in the orientation of the major axis (vertical or horizontal) and in the eccentricity value, but keeping the same outlet section in all cases. The comparison has been made in terms of mass flow, momentum flux and other important non-dimensional parameters which help to describe the behaviour of the inner nozzle flow: discharge coefficient (Cd), area coefficient (Ca) and velocity coefficient (Cv). The simulations have been done with a code able to simulate the flow under either cavitating or non-cavitating conditions. This code has been previously validated using experimental measurements over the standard nozzle with circular orifices. The main results of the investigation have shown how the different geometries modify the critical cavitation conditions as well as the discharge coefficient and the effective velocity. In particular, elliptical geometries with vertically oriented major axis are less prone to cavitate and have a lower discharge coefficient, whereas elliptical geometries with horizontally oriented major axis are more prone to cavitate and show a higher discharge coefficient