Background:The paper deals with a diesel common rail nozzle in which a novel orifice layout is implemented.Objective:Its influence on the nozzle mechanical-hydraulic behavior and on the spray shape transient development is experimentally investigated.Methods:In the research, a solenoid injector for light duty diesel engines is equipped with the novel nozzle prototype and tested. The prototype layout is described, pointing out the features of the nozzle orifices, in which a Slot cross-section is adopted; the investigation is accomplished extending the hydraulic tests and the spray visualizations to a reference nozzle with standard holes. The influence of the hole layout on the mechanical-hydraulic behavior of the nozzle is assessed by experimental analysis based on the rate of injection measurement, in comparison with the reference nozzle. Once the hydraulic behavior of the novel nozzle has been characterized in terms of mass flow rate, the slot influence on the spray shape is assessed analyzing the macroscopic features such as the penetration distance and the spray angle, in non evaporative conditions. The study is carried out under transient injection conditions, for different injection pressures, up to 1400 bar.Results:The results on spray characteristics also provide reference information to set up spray models suited to take the Slot orifice into account.
