Imaging of droplets and vapor distributions in a diesel fuel spray by means of a laser absorption-scattering technique.

The droplets and vapor distributions in a fuel spray were imaged by a dual-wavelength laser absorption-scattering technique. 1,3-dimethylnaphthalene, which has physical properties similar to those of Diesel fuel, strongly absorbs the ultraviolet light near the fourth harmonic (266 nm) of a Nd:YAG laser but is nearly transparent to the visible light near the second harmonic (532 nm) of a Nd:YAG laser. Therefore, droplets and vapor distributions in a Diesel spray can be visualized by an imaging system that uses a Nd:YAG laser as the incident light and 1,3-dimethylnaphthalene as the test fuel. For a quantitative application consideration, the absorption coefficients of dimethylnapthalene vapor at different temperatures and pressures were examined with an optical spectrometer. The findings of this study suggest that this imaging technique has great promise for simultaneously obtaining quantitative information of droplet density and vapor concentration in Diesel fuel spray.