%0 Journal Article %A Elbadawy, I. %A Gaskell, P. H. %A Lawes, Malcolm %A Thompson, H. M. %D 2011 %I Begell House %K gasoline direct injection, fuel sprays, turbulence %N 10 %P 799-817 %R 10.1615/AtomizSpr.2012003470 %T THE EFFECT OF INITIAL AMBIENT TURBULENCE LEVELS ON ISO-OCTANE INJECTION SPRAYS %U https://www.dl.begellhouse.com/journals/6a7c7e10642258cc,6adb91a553897bc0,4b869a9359acc66b.html %V 21 %X Iso-octane, injected at high pressure into ambient nitrogen with different prescribed nearly isotropic turbulence levels, characterized by the root-mean-square (RMS) turbulence velocity, is explored experimentally. Mie scatter laser sheet and Schlieren techniques are combined with a high-speed camera to capture images of the vapor and liquid phases simultaneously as a function of injection pressure and ambient turbulence level. These indicate that the latter has a significant influence on tip penetration length, penetration width, cross-sectional area, and velocity. Increased initial ambient turbulence levels lead to reductions in the penetration length in the axial direction and increases in the penetration width in the radial direction; it is also shown to improve fuel evaporation and mixing. %8 2012-04-04