Abstract
The current study has investigated the effects of biodiesel blended with gasoline on the spray characteristics in a Constant Volume Combustion Chamber (CVCC). With the concentration of 5, 10, 15 and 20% by volume, biodiesel was blended with commercial gasoline and performed on the macroscopic visualization test. Pure gasoline and biodiesel were also tested as the reference. The shadowgraph technique was conducted in the constant volume chamber. The spray images were recorded by a high speed video camera with frame speed 10,000 frame per second. Fuel injection was set at 800, 1000 and 1,350 bar with the simulated speed 1,500 and 2,000 rpm. The back pressure was controlled at 20 bar. The spray angle and penetration tip were measured and analyzed by using the image processing. At the high injection pressure, the spray penetration length with the simulated speed 1,500 rpm showed that B100 was lower than GB00-20 whereas the spray penetration length with the simulated speed 2,000 rpm exhibited that GB blends and B100 were insignificantly different. Due to biodiesel concentration, its effects on spray angles were observed throughout injection periods (T1, T2 and T3). At the simulated speed 1,500 rpm, the spray angle of GB blends and B100 presented the same pattern following injection timing. In addition, when the simulated speed increased to 2,000 rpm the different spray angle of all blends disappeared at main injection (T3).