Detailed information about combustion is leading to advances that will enable engine and vehicle manufacturers to meet stringent U.S. Environmental Protection Agency emissions standards while maintaining high fuel efficiency and power density.

Argonne researchers have conducted groundbreaking research at to visualize the flow inside the engine’s fuel injector nozzle using X-ray beams at the Advanced Photon Source, in an effort to understand the mechanisms that most influence engine performance and emission characteristics.

This work requires high-level modeling tools to accurately predict the influence of in-nozzle flow on spray and combustion. Argonne researchers are developing higher-fidelity nozzle flow and coupled nozzle flow and spray models to address this need.