The high injection pressures (typically 25-35,000 psi) employed in current diesel engines lead to substantial cavitation near the lip of the orifice. The very small scale (typically 200-300 microns) orifice diameters used in this application make experimental observations of this flowfield very challenging; a factor which enhances the importance of modeling these flowfields. The scheme which has been developed employs a pseudo-density to account for two-phase regions in the flow. A constitutive relation for the pseudo-density based on the Rayleigh-Plesset equation governing dynamics of a bubble has been developed for a multidimensional application by Chen, et. al. (see reference list below). This treatment accounts for nonequilibrium hydrodynamic effects and provides the methodology for generating the evolving density contours shown in simulations summarized on the following web pages. In these movies, density values near zero are pure vapor regions, while the pure liquid has a density of unity. The research is currently supported by the Cummins Engine Company and Dr. Wayne Eckerle in Fuel Metrology Subdivision.

Current and former graduate students participating in this work include: Dr. Yongliang Chen, Dr. Robert Bunnell, Changhai Xu