Int. J. Vehicle Design, Vol. 50, Nos. 1/2/3/4, 2009 35 Copyright © 2009 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Experimental investigation of electrostatic effects on ethanol and ethanol–diesel blend sprays in atmospheric ambiance Daniel S. Elegant, Taekyu Kang and Dimitrios C. Kyritsis* Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1206 W. Green Street, Urbana, IL 61801, USA Fax: +1 217 244 6534 E-mail: elegant@illinois.edu E-mail: taekang@illinois.edu E-mail: kyritsis@illinois.edu *Corresponding author Abstract: An experimental investigation of electrosprays of ethanol–diesel blends and electrostatically assisted injection of ethanol and ethanol–isooctane blends was performed in order to investigate the potential of novel injection techniques for ethanol-containing fuels. An exponential dependence of liquid fuel conductivity on ethanol content was established. Simple, fundamental electrosprays of ethanol–diesel blends containing 5–15% ethanol exhibited micro-dripping atomisation and produced sprays that approached the monodispersity that has been observed for pure ethanol sprays operating in the cone-jet mode. Experiments were also performed with ethanol and ethanol– isooctane blends on a commercially available swirl-type fuel injector that was modified with a conductive cap in order to electrostatically charge the fuel emerging from it. Electrostatically charged ethanol sprays penetrated in the ambient gas significantly less at the early stage of injection, especially for lower injection pressures. In addition, the angle formed by the hollow cone of spray was larger for the charged sprays. Such effects are expectedly diminishing with decreasing alcohol content. Keywords: diesel; e-diesel; electrostatic atomisation; ethanol. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Elegant, D.S., Kang, T. and Kyritsis, D.C. (2009) ‘Experimental investigation of electrostatic effects on ethanol and ethanol–diesel blend sprays in atmospheric ambiance’, Int. J. Vehicle Design, Vol. 50, Nos. 1/2/3/4, pp.35–49. Biographical notes: Daniel S. Elegant received an BS in 2006 and a MS in 2007 both of them in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Currently, he is employed as a Mechanical Engineer at Sargent and Lundy LLC, Chicago. His research in Illinois focused on electrostatically charged sprays of ethanol and ethanol-hydrocarbon blends. Taekyu Kang graduated in Mechanical Engineering from the Hanyang University in Korea, received an MS (2005) and a PhD (2008) in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Currently, he is employed as a Post-Doctoral affiliate in the same Department. During his