Development and validation of cavitation erosion prediction tool for computational fluid dynamics applications for ethanol blended fuels

Cavitation erosion is a phenomenon that is frequently seen in hydraulic systems such as high-pressure fuel injection and turbo machines, and sometimes reaches a level that can hinder the function of the system. Since its intensity varies depending on the properties of the fluid used and the system pressure, it can occur in different forms and intensities in different engineering applications. Within the scope of this study, a software was developed to detect cavitation erosion on the parts caused by ethanol-added fuels used in gasoline injection systems. Cavitation erosion tests are carried out with gasoline, E10, E30, E50 and E100 fuels, and the results are examined with the Shadowgraph method. The samples are measured by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) method. Software developments are based on the open-source CFD software OpenFOAM. The cavitation erosion method selected from the literature in accordance with incompressible flows was coded in C++ and implemented in the cavitation solver called "interPhaseChangeFoam". Simulations are made with fuel variations and compared with tests. While compatible results are obtained at low ethanol ratios, inconsistencies are detected between the tests and simulations at high ethanol ratios.