Expt.

3: Schlieren Technique
Name: Aditya Ravindra Pillai Roll No.: ME20BTECH11002
Aim: To find the fuel’s spray cone angle for different injection pressures.
Theory:
The Schlieren technique is an optical method for visualizing variations in the refractive index of transparent
media, like air. It is employed to observe density changes, temperature fluctuations, and shock waves in
gases. In a typical setup, a collimated light source produces a parallel beam, which passes through the
medium. Density variations in the medium cause deviations in light rays, creating shadows or brightness
changes. A knife edge selectively blocks part of the light, allowing only refracted rays to pass through. These
variations are captured by an imaging system, revealing qualitative representations of density gradients. This
technique is valuable for studying fluid dynamics, heat transfer, and aerodynamics in scientific and
engineering applications.

The Schlieren technique is used in internal combustion engines to see how fuel sprays that are sprayed into
the combustion chamber disperse. This aids in the comprehension of the fuel spray's dispersion and
atomization under various circumstances, especially those involving changing injection pressures. The
pictures that were taken provide details regarding the spray pattern, such as the spray cone angle, which
shows how far the fuel spray extends from the injector nozzle. It is possible to increase engine performance,
decrease emissions, and improve combustion efficiency by being aware of how the spray cone angle varies
with injection pressure.
Procedure:
1. Install a Schlieren optical system to examine the fuel spray in an internal combustion engine.
2. Assemble the required parts first: imaging optics, a knife-edge or comparable obstruction, collimating
optics to guarantee parallel light beams, and a light source.
3. Make sure it's dark outside so you can see the fuel spray clearly.
4. Turn on the engine while keeping the chamber pressure at three bars.
5. Turn on the fuel spray and set the fuel injection pressure to 400 bar.
6. Use a camera to take fast pictures of the fuel spray, then upload them to a computer for examination.
7. Use image processing software to separate one complete fuel spray cycle from the whole video clip.
8. For simpler examination, save the extracted cycle as a one-frame-per-second video file.
9. Create a MATLAB programme to examine the pictures and calculate the angle of the spray cone.
10. To examine the impact of injection pressure on the spray cone angle, repeat the complete process for fuel
injection pressures of 600 and 800 bar.
Pictures:
These are the pictures of fuel spray for different injection pressures:

400 bar 600 bar 800 bar

MATLAB Code:

clc % Clear the command window

imgRGB = imread("400.jpg"); % Read the RGB image

imshow(imgRGB) % Display the RGB image

% Convert the RGB image to grayscale

imgGray = im2gray(imgRGB);

% Binarize the grayscale image

binaryImg = imbinarize(imgGray);

% Invert the binary image

invertedBW = ~binaryImg;

% Display the inverted binary image

imshow(invertedBW)

% Detect edges in the inverted binary image using the Sobel operator
edgeImg = edge(invertedBW,'sobel');

% Perform Hough transform on the edge-detected image

[H,theta,rho] = hough(edgeImg);

% Identify peaks in the Hough transform accumulator array

peaks = houghpeaks(H,5,'threshold',ceil(0.3*max(H(:))));

% Detect lines in the image using the Hough peaks

lines = houghlines(edgeImg,theta,rho,peaks,'FillGap',5,'MinLength',7);

% Display the original binary image with detected lines overlayed

figure, imshow(edgeImg), hold on

% Initialize variable to store the length of the longest line segment

maxLength = 0;

% Iterate through each detected line

for lineIndex = 1:length(lines)
% Extract endpoints of the line
linePoints = [lines(lineIndex).point1; lines(lineIndex).point2];
 % Plot the line
plot(linePoints(:,1),linePoints(:,2),'LineWidth',2,'Color','green');

% Plot the endpoints of the line

plot(linePoints(1,1),linePoints(1,2),'x','LineWidth',2,'Color','yellow');
plot(linePoints(2,1),linePoints(2,2),'x','LineWidth',2,'Color','red');

% Determine the length of the line segment

lineLength = norm(lines(lineIndex).point1 - lines(lineIndex).point2);

% Update the length of the longest line segment

if (lineLength > maxLength)
maxLength = lineLength;
longestLinePoints = linePoints;
end

end

% Highlight the longest line segment

plot(longestLinePoints(:,1),longestLinePoints(:,2),'LineWidth',2,'Color','red');

Results:
Conclusion:
The spray cone angle for 400 bar is 3.02° and that for 600 bar and 800 bar is 11° and 10.7°.
The general trend suggests that spray cone angle increases with increase in injection pressure
for a constant chamber pressure, which is 3 bar in our case. The relation between spray cone
angle and injection pressure also depends on nozzle geometry.