Internal electrification of diesel oil injectors

The objective of our research is to find a process which is able to charge (electrically speaking) a diesel oil jet in order to modify its hydrodynami c characteristics (dispersion and size of the droplets). In this paper we p resent the results of a campaign of experiments on the electrification of d iesel oil jets. The liquid is electrified inside the injector with a needle brought to a high voltage (up to 4kV). The electric charge of the jet is m easured in terms of the voltage, the distance between the needle and the co unter electrode (from 0 to 2 mm) and the rate of flow (from 2.4 to 3.1 x 10 (-5) m(3)/s). The highest level of the electric charge recorded is 3 x 10(- 2) C/m(3) which is 100 times higher than the level we recorded before with another process of electrification. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.