Journal Pre-proofs

Research Paper

Effect mechanism and quantitative analysis of injector faults on diesel engine

performance

Han Wu, Yaqing Bo, Peng Xiao, Zhicheng Shi, Xiangrong Li

PII: S1359-4311(23)01588-0
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2023.121559
Reference: ATE 121559

To appear in: Applied Thermal Engineering

Received Date: 18 May 2023

Revised Date: 29 July 2023
Accepted Date: 6 September 2023

Please cite this article as: H. Wu, Y. Bo, P. Xiao, Z. Shi, X. Li, Effect mechanism and quantitative analysis of
injector faults on diesel engine performance, Applied Thermal Engineering (2023), doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/
j.applthermaleng.2023.121559

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© 2023 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

 Effect mechanism and quantitative analysis of injector faults on diesel

engine performance

Han Wu1, Yaqing Bo1, Peng Xiao2, Zhicheng Shi1, *, Xiangrong Li1

1. School of Mechanical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China

2. Beijing Institute of Space Launch Technology, Beijing 100076, China

(*Corresponding authors: Zhicheng Shi, Email: 15933731855@163.com; Tel: +86-18801326695)

Abstract

The nozzle deterioration, caused by carbon deposition, cavitation erosion, and other reasons, has a great
influence on the power performance, emissions, and thermal load of the direct injection (DI) engine. To understand
the manifold effects of nozzle fault on engines, a systematic explanation for the diverse fault phenomena and
effect mechanism of nozzle abnormality on the engine performance is needed. The joint action of orifice diameter
and fuel spread direction on the performance of a double-swirl diesel engine are numerically revealed and
decoupled. The results show that the engine power performance is mainly affected by the change of orifice
diameter, while the abnormal spray direction has a great influence on the emissions and the piston surface thermal
load. Insufficient spray tilt angle leads to a more concentrated fuel distribution because the fuel of the faulty orifice
is not effectively channeled and dispersed by the circular ridge, which causes a 15.29% increase in NOx and an
8.73% increase in soot emissions. Spray circumferential offset leads to increased soot, decreased NOx, and slightly
decreased power due to asymmetric fuel distribution. Some fuel is directly injected and burned in the clearance
between the piston crown and cylinder head due to the abnormal spray direction, which causes the maximum heat
flux at the piston crown to be about 1.8 times that under normal state, greatly increasing the possibility of piston
damage. In contrast, the spray circumferential offset mainly causes the position change of the thermal load, but
not the magnitude change.

Keywords: Diesel engine; double-swirl combustion chamber; abnormal injection; fuel spread direction; orifice
diameter

1. Introduction

The nozzle abnormal state of direct injection (DI) engine, caused by carbon deposition, cavitation erosion,
deformation, and other reasons, has a great influence on the spray characteristics and the working state of the
engine, among which the fuel injector deposit formation is the most common issue [1]. Many factors can affect
the failure rate of the nozzle, such as nozzle temperature [2], fuel properties [3], and fuel impurity [4, 5]. Moreover,
with the decrease in fossil fuel reserves, the use of alternative fuels is crucial for internal combustion engines, and
deposit formation is one of the major challenges in the application of some alternative fuels [6, 7]. In general, the
injector surface damage and carbon deposition can be observed directly after disassembly, and the composition
and causes of the deposit can be analyzed by the techniques such as Scanning electron microscopy, X-ray
photoelectron spectroscopy, etc. [8, 9]. However, to improve the efficiency of fault diagnosis and provide the
theoretical basis for digital health management, it is still necessary to understand the manifold effects of fuel

1
injector faults on engines.

Fuel injector faults will directly lead to the change in the fuel-air mixing process, and then affect the power
and emission performance of diesel engines and Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) engines [10], but the influence
of nozzle abnormality varies greatly with different fouling levels and working conditions [11]. Jiang et al. [12]
tested a fouled injector nozzle by the method of Scan Electronic Microscope. They found that the deposit was
formed at both the injector tip and the inside of the injector nozzle, and the injection deposit led to a maximum
five-fold increase in particulate number. Pos et al. [13] studied the influence of sediment on the development of
high-pressure diesel spray, and by comparing clean and deposited nozzles, they found that sediment leads to poor
spray symmetry for the multiple orifice nozzle, poor repeatability across multiple tests, and the spray cone angle
that is 10-140% larger than those of the clean nozzle. However, Sheykhvazayefi et al. [14] found in their research
on the coking phenomenon that 300, 700, 800, and 900 hours of operating time resulted in sediment coverage of
20, 40, 75, 90% of the spray hole area, respectively, and sediments of different degrees all led to the reduction of
spray cone angle. But Stepien et al. [15] believed that although carbon deposition changed the microscopic
characteristics, it had little influence on the injector performance. Karamangil et al. [16] and Magno et al. [17]
studied the influence of nozzle fouling on fuel injection quantities, but the results were a little different.
Karamangil et al. [16] tested two injectors and found that the fuel injection quantity was reduced by 31.43 and
26.26% after fouling, while the research of Magno et al. [17] showed that the injector deposit had little effect on
fuel injection quantity, but the penetration distance was shortened, the injection duration was increased, and the
particulate matter and NOx emissions of the engine were increased. In addition, Cristofaro et al. [18] found that
cavitation erosion would cause the nozzle to deform, and then change the fuel movement state inside the nozzle.
Wang et al. [19] found that eccentric needle movement not only resulted in poor flow consistency between each
orifice but also resulted in a change in fuel flow direction.

The influence mechanism of nozzle abnormality on the engine is complicated due to the matching
relationship among the fuel injection, in-cylinder air movement, and the combustion chamber. The nozzle
abnormality can lead to changes in orifice diameter, which can directly change fuel injection flow, and further
affects the engine performance [20]. Meanwhile, the orifice diameter also causes the change in spray
characteristics such as penetration distance and spray cone angle [21, 22], leading to the change in the diesel
engine air-fuel mixing process, and then affecting the combustion characteristics [23, 24] and emission
characteristics [25]. In addition, the injector faults such as nozzle distortion, eccentric needle movement, and hole
machining error, can affect the atomization and diffusion direction of the fuel spray, and further lead to a change
in the interaction between the spray and the wall surface. Liu et al. [26] found that the increase in the wall distance
delayed the occurrence of ignition and the brightness saturation point. Zhou et al. [27] obtained wall heat transfer
by using the method of fast-response platinum resistance thermometers and inverse heat conduction calculation
and found that the increase in wall distance led to a decrease in wall heat transfer. Li et al. [28] investigated the
influence of wall distance on flame and soot generation and found that with the increase in wall distance, soot
emissions decreased. In addition to the wall distance, the spray-wall impact angle was also found to have a
significant effect on diesel combustion [29, 30] and emission characteristics [31].

As mentioned above, although there have been some studies on the influence of nozzle abnormality on
engines, a systematic explanation for the diverse phenomena is still needed. Moreover, some basic research on
spray characteristics and spray-wall interaction has not established a direct correlation between combustion
characteristics under fault conditions. The link between nozzle abnormality and basic research on spray
characteristics and spray-wall interaction has not yet been established. Therefore, to reveal the influence

2
mechanism of nozzle abnormality on the diesel engine and decouple the joint action of orifice diameter and fuel
spread direction, the influences of the change of the aperture and the deviation of different spread directions of
one hole in an 8-hole injector on the power performance, emission and piston surface thermal load of the diesel
engine are numerically studied.

2. Simulation Methodology

2.1. Computational model

In this paper, the research was carried out based on a single-cylinder diesel engine. The basic technical
parameters of the target engine are shown in Table 1. The engine bore, stroke, and compression ratio is 132 mm,
145 mm, and 13.5, respectively. The engine speed was set to 1800 rpm for all the calculation cases in this study,
which is the maximum torque speed. A double swirl combustion system (DSCS) was used and the detailed
combustion chamber structure has been introduced in the previous study [32], in which three different pistons
have been studied and compared, and the piston with the combustion chamber diameter of 98 mm (DSCS98) was
selected in this study. An 8-hole injector was used during the study and the orifice diameter is 0.27 mm. In the
simulation process, only one orifice was faulty, while the other orifices were kept in the normal injection state.

Table 1. Diesel engine basic technical parameters

Parameter (unit) Value

Bore (mm) 132

Stroke (mm) 145

Displacement (L) 1.984

Compression ratio (-) 13.5

Connecting rod length (mm) 262

Rated speed (rpm) 2500

Maximum torque speed (rpm) 1800

Number of nozzle orifices (-) 8

Orifice diameter (mm) 0.27

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 The nozzle fault phenomena such as carbon deposition and cavitation may lead to the aperture deformation
and the existence of sediment inside and outside of the nozzle hole, thus affecting the diameter of the nozzle
orifice and the spray diffusion direction. To explore and decouple the detailed effect mechanism of the orifice
abnormal state, the influence of the normal state, fault orifice diffusion direction change, and fault orifice diameter
change on engine performance was simulated and analyzed in this study. For the change of fuel spread direction,
three typical anomalies were studied and the schematic diagram of 1#orifice fuel spread direction abnormality for
an 8-hole injector is shown in Fig.1. The first and second cases in the figure respectively represent the insufficient
and excessive of spray tilt angle in xz plane, and the third case shows the offset of the spray in the circumferential
direction. For the change of orifice diameter, 1/2 surface blockage, and complete blockage simulation were carried
out. Moreover, some current closed-loop control strategies can automatically adjust the fuel injection mass when
the fuel mass fails to reach the target, so the cases of maintaining constant fuel quality by adjusting injection
duration were simulated, as the Fault Case 6 and Case 7 in Table 2.

Fig.1. Schematic diagram of 1#orifice fuel spread direction abnormality for an 8-hole injector.

Table 2. Working states of 1#orifice

Case Working state description

Normal state Orifice diameter 0.27 mm, 8 orifices symmetrical distribution.

Fault case 1 Tilt angle insufficient

Fault case 2 Tilt angle excessive

Fault case 3 Spray circumferential direction offset.

4
 Fault case 4 1/2 surface blockage, injection strategy unchanged, normal direction

Fault case 5 Complete blockage, injection strategy unchanged

Fault case 6 1/2 surface blockage, fuel mass unchanged, normal direction

Fault case 7 Complete blockage, fuel mass unchanged

During the simulation, for all the normal and fault cases, the base mesh size was 4 mm, and the mesh size
adaptively changed based on the temperature, velocity, and mass fraction of the key species. The mesh fixed
embedding was set for the injector and boundary, while the difference in the injection direction of the 1#orifice
in the fault cases results in the different positions of the mesh embedding. As a result, The minimum mesh size
was 0.25 mm and the maximum number of grids reaches 5 million, which is acceptable for the accuracy and time
of the spray penetration and ignition delay computation [33, 34]. The calculation was carried out in the
CONVERGE software, and the Dynamic drop drag model, O’Rourke wall film model, the Kelvin Helmholtz [35]
-Rayleigh Taylor [36] (KH-RT) break-up model, RNG k-ε turbulence model, and the SAGE combustion model
[37] were utilized. A multi-component diesel surrogate was used for both the physical and the chemical calculation,
which consists of n-C10H22 (Straight Alkane), iso-C8H18 (Branched Alkane), methylcyclohexane (Cycloalkanes),
and C6H5CH3 (Aromatics) [38].

2.2. Model validation

To reveal the effect mechanisms of the nozzle spray fault phenomena on the fuel-air mixing and combustion
process and ensure the reliability of the simulation, the model validation was carried out. In this study, the accuracy
of the simulation was considered from the 3-D physical process, chemical reaction mechanism, and 3-D
combustion process. The comparison of liquid and vapor penetration length between the experiment and
simulation are shown in Fig.2. It can be seen that the vapor phase penetration length continues to increase with
time, while the liquid phase penetration length tends to be stable after increasing to 30 mm, and the results of
simulation and experiment match well, which proves the simulation accuracy of physical process. As mentioned
above, a multi-component diesel surrogate was used in this study. The mechanism of the chemical reaction was
proposed by the previous study, and the proposed mechanism has been proven that it can predict well the formation
of PAHs and provide reliable information for predicting diesel engine soot formation [38]. Moreover, this
mechanism of diesel surrogate has also been proven to be reliable in the CFD simulation research of diesel engine
soot generation and oxidation [39].

The study was conducted at 1800 rpm engine speed, with an excess air coefficient of 1.6 and experimental
intake pressure of 1.5 bar. However, the actual in-cylinder pressure of test results was about 1.9 bar at 120 °CA
BTDC (before the top dead center), so the initial pressure of simulation was set as 1.9 bar. An electronic unit
pump system was used for the fuel injection, and the maximum injection pressure is 80 MPa under this condition.
During the experiment, 30 consecutive cycles in a stable state were collected, and one group of data was selected
as the basis for cylinder pressure validation. The comparison of in-cylinder pressure, heat release rate, soot, and
NOx emissions between the experiment and simulation is shown in Fig.3. The simulation results of in-cylinder

5
pressure, heat release rate, and NOx emission are slightly higher than the experimental results, while the soot
emission is slightly smaller than the experimental result, but the difference is within the acceptable range and the
results indicate that model is reliable.

Fig.2. Comparison of spray penetration length between experiment and simulation.

(a) In-cylinder pressure and heat release rate validation

6
 (b) Soot and NOx validation

Fig.3. Comparison of engine combustion results between experiment and simulation.

3. Results and Discussion

3.1. Tilt angle insufficient in xz plane

Insufficient spray tilt angle may result in direct impingement of spray on the inner chamber of the double
swirl combustion system, instead of the circular ridge, as the first scenario shown in Fig.1. The comparison of
IMEP (indicated mean effective pressure), Tend (the temperature at the end of simulation), soot and NOx mass
between the normal state and 1#orifice spray tilt angle insufficient in xz plane are shown in Fig.4. In this study,
the power performance is mainly characterized by IMEP, which is calculated based on simulation results within
the range of -120°CA to 120°CA. The Tend refers to the in-cylinder average temperature and the soot and NOx
are quantified based on the mass inside the cylinder at the end of the simulation. The results show that under the
condition of 1#orifice spray offset, there was a slight effect on power performance and Tend, while both the soot
and NOx increased significantly, with increases of 8.73% and 15.29%, respectively, compared to the normal state.

Fig.4. Comparison of IMEP, Tend, soot, and NOx mass between the normal state and 1#orifice spray tilt angle
insufficient in xz plane.

The in-cylinder pressure, heat release rate, mean temperature, the mass of OH and CH2O of the states of
normal operation, and 1#orifice spray tilt angle insufficient are compared, as shown in Fig.5. It can be seen that
the ignition start time is basically the same, and there is no obvious difference in the combustion heat release in
the early stage of combustion. The peak value of the heat release rate in the spray offset state is larger, the second
peak appears earlier, and the heat release rate between is greater than the normal state 1.7°CA and 9°CA ATDC,
which leads to a higher in-cylinder pressure before 30°CA ATDC. However, after 30°CA ATDC, the pressure in
the normal state is higher, so although the heat release of the abnormal state is more concentrated near the top
dead center, the power performance is not significantly improved, only by about 0.1% in IMEP.

7
 Fig.5. Comparison of in-cylinder pressure, heat release rate, mean temperature, and the mass of OH and CH2O
between the normal state and 1#orifice spray tilt angle insufficient in xz plane.

To further analyze the reasons for the increase in emissions, the results at 1.72°CA ATDC are analyzed in
detail, which is the first 3D output after the significant difference in performance. The fuel-air distribution is not
symmetrical due to the abnormal injection direction of 1#orifice, so the slices of different positions at this moment
are extracted, and the schematic diagram of the slices is shown in Fig.6. The slice A passes through the axis of
1#orifice and the slices are extracted every ten degrees from A to E.

The contour of OH mass fraction and temperature of different slices at 1.72°CA ATDC are shown in Fig.7,
in which the black, green, and white solid lines in the second column indicate equivalence ratios of 0.5, 1, and
1.5, respectively. Slice A passes through the axis of 1#orifice and 5#orifice, where the fuel diffusion and chemical
reaction of 5#orifice are on the left part of the contour and the spray of 1#orifice is on the right. At normal state,
the spray diffuses to the inner and outer chambers respectively after hitting the circular ridge, while under
abnormal conditions, the spray directly impacts the inner chamber, resulting in the fuel diffusing from the inner
chamber to the outer chamber, and the diversion advantage of double swirl combustion system is not reflected.
The fuel spray of 1#orifice is not effectively channeled and dispersed, so the fuel distribution is more concentrated,
leading to a higher local temperature of the fuel concentration area and a poor homogeneity of fuel and temperature
distribution in the cylinder during the combustion process, as shown in the slice A, B, and C of Fig.7.

Fig.6. Diagram of key position slices and OH contour surface.

8
 Fig.7. Contour of OH mass fraction and temperature of different slices at 1.72°CA ATDC. (The black, green,
and white solid lines in the second column indicate equivalence ratios of 0.5, 1, and 1.5, respectively.)

The in-cylinder mixture mass distribution at different temperatures and equivalence ratios is statistically
analyzed and shown in Fig.8. Specifically, mass statistics are carried out with 0.2 equivalence ratio and 100 K
temperature as class interval, and the ratio of mass in each class to the total mass of the mixture in the cylinder is
represented by different colors. The mass distribution in the normal state and the offset state are respectively
shown in Fig.8 (a) and Fig.8 (b). The overall distribution rules of the above two states are similar, but there are
some differences in specific details. To more intuitively compare the difference between the two states, the
difference in the mass distribution is plotted. When the value of the difference between the 1#orifice spray offset
state and the normal state is positive, it is represented as red, which means that the mass distribution in the
abnormal state is more than the normal state, while the opposite is blue, as shown in Fig.8 (c). It can be seen that
no matter in a normal or abnormal state, the fuel equivalence ratio in the high-temperature region (temperature
greater than 2400 K) is mainly between 0.8 and 1.6. With the increase of the equivalence ratio, the mixture
temperature gradually decreases. At 1.72°CA ATDC, the proportion of mass distribution in the high-temperature
region under the abnormal state is larger than that in the normal state. When the equivalence ratio is between 2.5
and 5, the mass distribution of the mixture under the abnormal state is still larger than the normal state in the
relatively high-temperature region. In contrast, the mass distribution of the normal state is more in the region with
the low temperature. Moreover, as shown in Fig.4, the average temperature in the cylinder is basically the same
at this moment, indicating that the combustion is more concentrated and proving that the 1#orifice spray tilt angle
is insufficient in xz plane leads to poor homogeneity of temperature in the cylinder. In addition, grids with NOx
and soot mass fractions greater than 0.05% are labeled in Fig.8 (c). It can be seen that NOx is mainly distributed
in the high-temperature region (temperature greater than 2400 K), which is mainly the red region in Fig.8 (c), so
the abnormal state is more suitable for NOx generation at this moment. Similarly, soot is mainly produced in the
region with an equivalence ratio of 2-4, and is still mostly distributed in the red region. Therefore, both soot and
NOx emissions have significantly increased, and the increase in NOx is more obvious.

9
 (a) Normal state

(b) 1#orifice spray offset

(c) Difference between 1#orifice spray offset and normal state

Fig.8. Comparison of fuel-air mixture mass distribution between the normal state and 1#orifice spray tilt angle
insufficient.

10
3.2. Tilt angle excessive in the xz plane

Abnormal phenomena such as carbon deposition and cavitation erosion in the nozzle hole may lead to the
increase of the spray tilt angle and further cause the fuel to be injected into the clearance between the piston crown
and cylinder head. The calculation results of IMEP, Tend, soot, and NOx mass are shown in Fig.9. Compared to
the normal state, 1#orifice excessive spray tilt angle leads to a decrease in both engine power performance and
emissions, but only to a small extent. However, this abnormal state has a great influence on the thermal load of
the piston surface. The contour of OH mass fraction, temperature, and piston surface heat flux is shown in Fig.10,
where the arrows in the first column represent the velocity, and the black, green, and white solid lines in the
second column indicate equivalence ratios of 0.5, 1, and 1.5, respectively. As can be seen from the spray
development process of the 5#orifice in the contour, under normal state, after the fuel hits the piston circular ridge,
a small part of the fuel diffuses to the inner chamber and most of the fuel diffuses to the outer chamber. The fuel
in the outer chamber continues to develop along the surface of the piston, eventually leaving the piston and hitting
the cylinder head. The direction of fuel movement once again changes after hitting the cylinder head and diffuses
in different directions. In contrast, under abnormal condition, a part of the fuel impinges on the outer chamber and
develops downward along the piston, while the other part of the fuel is directly injected into the clearance between
the piston crown and cylinder head. The fuel injected into the clearance cannot be diverted by the combustion
chamber, which leads to more concentrated fuel and is not conducive to combustion, so the combustion efficiency
and power performance are slightly decreased. At the same time, the fuel combustion process is more concentrated
in the clearance, which significantly increases the thermal load of the piston crown. The maximum heat flux at
the piston crown under failure conditions is about 1.8 times that under normal state, which greatly increases the
possibility of piston damage and shortens the piston service life.

Fig.9. Comparison of IMEP, Tend, soot, and NOx mass between the normal state and 1#orifice spray tilt angle
excessive in xz plane.

11
 Fig.10. Contour of OH mass fraction, temperature, and piston heat flux. (The arrows in the first column
represent the velocity. The black, green, and white solid lines in the second column indicate equivalence ratios
of 0.5, 1, and 1.5, respectively.)

3.3. Fuel spread direction offsets in the xy plane

The offset of the spray in the circumferential direction leads to the phenomenon that the distance between
two adjacent sprays is relatively close and the two sprays collide earlier after the spray-wall impingement. The
simulation results show that, as shown in Fig.11, the spray offset in the circumferential direction leads to a 1.66%
decrease in IMEP, a 16.05% increase in soot mass, an 11.02% decrease in NOx mass, and a very slight increase
in Tend. The in-cylinder pressure, heat release rate, mean temperature, and mass of OH and CH2O are shown in
Fig.12. It can be seen from the change of CH2O mass that the starting point of combustion in the two states is
basically the same. Before 14°CA ATDC, the heat release rate of the spray direction offset state is significantly
lower than the normal state. After 14°CA ATDC, the heat release rate is slightly higher than the normal state, and
the difference in heat release rate increases again after 35°CA ATDC, indicating that the post-combustion of the
abnormal state is relatively serious.

Fig.11. Comparison of IMEP, Tend, soot, and NOx mass between the normal state and 1#orifice spray offset in
the xy plane.

12
 Fig.12. Comparison of in-cylinder pressure, heat release rate, mean temperature, and mass of OH and CH2O
between the normal state and 1#orifice spray offset in the xy plane.

The mass distribution difference between the states of 1#orifice spray offset in the circumferential direction
and normal operation is shown in Fig.13. The abnormal spray direction leads to more concentrated fuel in some
regions, so the mass distribution with equivalence ratio greater than two is higher than the normal state, and the
homogeneity of fuel distribution in the combustion process is poor, which leads to the increase of soot quality. At
the same time, poor fuel-air mixing is not conducive to combustion, resulting in less high-temperature fuel, and
the engine power performance and NOx generation decrease. For the thermal load of the piston surface, the
contour of piston heat flux at 1#orifice spray offset condition is shown in Fig.14. The results show that, compared
to the normal state, the position of the area with high load changes, but there is no significant effect on the
maximum of thermal load.

Fig.13. Fuel-air mixture mass distribution difference between 1#orifice spray offset in the xy plane and normal
state.

13
 Fig.14. Contour of piston heat flux at normal and 1#orifice spray offset condition.

3.4. Effect of orifice diameter

The carbon deposition of the injector nozzle affects the diameter of the orifice. To decouple the effect of
orifice diameter change on the engine performance from other changes, the orifice diameter of the faulty orifice
is the only research object in this part. During the study, under the condition that other orifices sizes are normal,
the diameter of 1#orifice is changed to simulate the state of 50% blockage and 100% blockage, which respectively
means that the orifice area is reduced to 50% of the original and the nozzle is completely blocked. If the injection
control strategy does not change, the change of orifice diameter will directly affect the cycle fuel injection mass,
such as in Fault Case 4 and Fault Case 5. However, some current closed-loop control strategies can make up the
fuel injection mass by extending the duration of fuel injection when the fuel mass fails to reach the target. For this
condition, Fault Case 6 and Case 7 are added, which ensure the fuel mass is consistent with the normal condition
by extending the injection duration.

The IMEP and Tend of different orifice conditions are shown in Fig.15. It can be seen that as the injection
strategy remains unchanged, the nozzle blockage leads to a significant decrease in engine power performance and
Tend. Although the power performance can be compensated to a certain extent by extending the duration to ensure
the same fuel mass, it still cannot be restored to the normal state, and the IMEP of 1#orifice completely blocked
is still about 4% lower than the normal state. In addition, extending the duration leads to an increase in Tend, which
means an increase in exhaust loss. The emission, combustion phase, and heat release rate of different orifice
conditions are shown in Table 3 and Fig.16. For the orifice blockage with an unchanged injection strategy, the
overall injection flow rate and fuel mass are reduced, so the emission and heat release rate is correspondingly
decreased. For the condition with prolonged injection duration, the combustion duration is prolonged, the post-
combustion is relatively serious, and the fuel distribution in the cylinder is asymmetrical due to the blockage of
the 1#orifice, which eventually leads to the increase of soot mass. The heat release center is significantly delayed,

14
resulting in a reduced proportion of ultra-high temperature combustion, and thus a reduction of NOx emissions.

Fig.15. Indicated mean effective pressure and Tend of different orifice conditions.

Table 3. Emission and combustion phase

Items (unit) Normal state Fault Case 5 Fault Case 7

SOOT (mg) 0.249 0.247 0.334

NOx (mg) 1.171 0.896 0.834

CA10 (°CA ATDC) 0.50 0.50 1.31

CA50 (°CA ATDC) 12.12 12.31 15.50

CA90 (°CA ATDC) 38.01 39.11 43.92

CA10-CA90 (°CA) 37.51 38.61 42.61

15
 Fig.16. Combustion heat release rate of different orifice conditions.

4. Conclusions

The abnormal status of the nozzle will lead to a change in the orifice diameter and the spray development
direction, thus affecting the engine power and emission performance. To explore and decouple the detailed effect
mechanism, this study conducted an isolation analysis of the different faults occurring in the 1#orifice of an 8-
orifice injector for a diesel engine with a double-swirl combustion chamber. The following conclusions are
obtained.

1. For the nozzle abnormal status, the diesel engine power performance is mainly affected by the change of the
orifice diameter, while the abnormal spray direction has a great influence on the soot and NOx emissions
and the thermal load of the piston surface.

2. Insufficient spray tilt angle causes the spray to directly impacts the inner chamber and then spread to the
outer chamber. The faulty fuel spray is not effectively channeled and dispersed, so the fuel distribution is
more concentrated, which further leads to a 15.29% increase in NOx and an 8.73% increase in soot emissions.

3. The asymmetric fuel distribution in the spray circumferential offset state leads to a prolonged combustion
duration, an increased proportion of afterburning, and less mass distribution in the high-temperature area.
As a result, the soot mass increases by 16.05%, the NOx mass decreases by 11.02%, and the engine power
performance is also slightly reduced.

4. Excessive spray tilt angle causes some of the fuel to be injected and burned in the clearance between the
piston crown and cylinder head, and the flame is not effectively channeled, resulting in a substantial increase
in piston thermal load. The maximum heat flux at the piston crown is about 1.8 times that under normal state,
which greatly increases the possibility of piston damage. In contrast, the spray circumferential offset mainly
causes the position change of the thermal load, but not the magnitude change.

Acknowledgment

This material is based upon work supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under
Grant No. 52176098. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication

16
are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

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Highlights

1. Mechanism of abnormal nozzle spray effects on DI engine performance is revealed.

2. Power performance is mainly affected by the change of the orifice diameter.

3. Insufficient tilt angle causes increased emissions due to fuel diversion failure.

4. Spray circumferential offset leads to asymmetric fuel distribution and more soot.

5. Fuel injected directly into the clearance greatly increases piston thermal load.

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[40]

Declaration of interest statement

Journal: Applied Thermal Engineering

Title: Effect mechanism and quantitative analysis of nozzle deterioration on engine

performance

Authors: Han Wu, Yaqing Bo, Peng Xiao, Zhicheng Shi*, Xiangrong Li

Conflicts of Interest: none

As the corresponding author, I am sure that all authors listed have seen and approved the
final version of the manuscript, and warrant that the article is the original work, it hasn't
received prior publication and isn't under consideration for publication elsewhere.

We also confirm that there's no financial/personal interest or belief that could affect their
objectivity on the manuscript.

Thanks very much for your consideration!

Sincerely Yours,

Zhicheng Shi

Tel: +86 18801326695

E-mail: 15933731855@163.com

Affiliation and address:

School of Mechanical Engineering

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Beijing Institute of Technology

5# Zhongguancun South Street, Beijing 100081, China

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