Impact of gasoline direct injection fuel injector hole geometry on spray characteristics under flash boiling and ambient conditions

•PDA tests were carried out to compare ambient and flash boiling spray characteristics.•Larger hole results in larger droplet size under both ambient and flash boiling conditions.•Divergent hole offers greater resistance towards spray collapse under flash boiling condition.•Higher injection pressure leads to a longer distance before spray eventually collapse.•Injector hole design features influence injector’s resistance towards spray collapse. The effect of injector nozzle design on the Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) fuel spray characteristics under atmospheric and flash boiling conditions was investigated using Phase Doppler Anemometry (PDA) measurements. To understand the impact of hole diameter and conicity, experiments were conducted on two bespoke 3-hole injectors in a pressure and temperature controlled constant volume chamber and in the open air. The measurements were taken radially outward from the injector axis to the outer extent of the plume at distances of 15 mm, 25 mm and 40 mm from the injector tip. Observations of the influence of surrounding gas and temperature conditions and hole design on the injector spray performance were made. Under non-flash boiling conditions, it was found that the injection pressure dictates the length of the spray penetration before collapse occurs, with an increase in pressure resulting in an increase in this length. Comparison of mean velocity and droplet diameter data are also made to understand the performance under flash boiling conditions. Results show that, under flash boiling conditions, the droplet velocity significantly increases while the droplet size reduces. More importantly, it is found that the impact of the flash boiling environment on sprays of different hole geometries is different. Some hole designs offer more resistance against spray collapse. It was found that the mid-sized of the three hole diameters tested here was found to produce a spray that more readily collapsed than that of the smaller or larger hole diameters. In addition, it was found that under flash boiling conditions, the convergent hole had a greater propensity to exhibit spray collapse.