Macroscopic Spray Investigations of Ethanol-Based Fuel in a Constant Volume Spray Chamber

Abstract Bio-based fuels are proven to be important for reducing the dependency on fossil fuels. The present study investigated the spray characteristics of ED95 (95% ethanol and 5% additives) fuel, which is an ethanol-derived bio-based fuel. A laboratory-scale self-developed constant volume spray chamber (CVSC) was utilized for the macroscopic spray analysis. Detailed macroscopic spray characteristics like spray penetration length, spray cone angle, and spray area for ED95 were investigated in CVSC using a high-speed camera, and comparisons were performed with baseline fuel diesel for varying injection pressures of 350, 450, and 550 bar. ED95 showed superior spray behavior with a shorter spray penetration length of 120.9 mm in comparison to diesel (141.5 mm) for 1 ms of elapsed time from the start of the injection event. Spray cone angles were also showing superior results with 11.09 deg and 8.30 deg for ED95 and diesel, respectively. Average spray velocity for ED95 was observed to be lower in comparison to diesel, which possibly indicates faster fuel–air mixing. The study suggests that ED95 could be a sustainable and renewable alternative fuel for compression ignition (CI) engines.