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 hydrodynamic characteristics (dispersion and size of the droplets). In this paper we present the results of a campaign of experiments on the electrification of diesel oil jets. The liquid is electrified inside the injector with a needle brought to a high voltage (up to 4 kV). The electric charge of the jet is measured in terms of the voltage, the distance between the needle and the counter electrode (from 0 to 2 mm) and the rate of flow (from 2.4 to 3.1×10−5 m3/s). The highest level of the electric charge recorded is 3×10−2 C/m3, which is 100 times higher than the level we recorded before with another process of electrification.