Investigation of the GCI main injection: experimental-numerical analysis of gasoline spray impact at reference engine conditions

•Optical measurements on impacting fuel spray at non-conventional sets of injection pressure, chamber pressure, wall temperature.•CFD impact spray simulation and validation of the experimental set and data analysis (spray mass, evaporated mass, film mass).•Implementation of a numerical methodology for predicting the local fuel distribution after impact against the piston bowl at GCI engine conditions. This work deals with the experimental and numerical investigation of ultra-high pressure gasoline injection against heated walls in order to characterize the fuel evaporation and distribution in gasoline compression ignition combustion chambers. Spray-wall impingement tests have been conducted in a quiescent vessel and recorded by means of the Mie scattering technique. The test conditions have been set in line with those of a reference benched GCI engine, leading to 500 bar and 700 bar for the injection pressure, 298 K, 423 K, 493 K for the wall temperature, 20 mm and 30 mm for the injector-wall distance. The same test matrix has been reproduced by means of CFD three-dimensional simulations using a proper setting of the wall-impingement model and the joint use of CFD-FEM approaches for the vapour-wall heat exchange. The time evolution of the rebound spray has been recorded and then postprocessed leading to the width and the thickness of the cloud. The CFD results are in line with the experimental ones both in terms of the overall time evolution and punctual values, proving a good accuracy of the simulation in predicting the rebound/adhered fuel mass split and the local distribution of the fuel after the impingement. Given the reliability of the simulations, insights on the numerical wall film mass and evaporated mass have been provided in order to clarify the effect of increasing pressure, temperature, and distance. [Display omitted]