In recent years urea selective catalytic reduction (SCR) has become the principal method of NO_x abatement within heavy duty (HD) diesel exhaust systems; however, with upcoming applications demanding NO_x reduction efficiencies of above 96% on engines producing upwards of 10 g·kWh~(-1) NO_x, future diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) dosing systems will be required to operate stably at significantly increased dosing rates. Developing a dosing system capable of meeting the increased performance requirements demands an improved understanding of how DEF sprays interact with changing exhaust flows. This study has investigated four production systems representing a diverse range of dosing strategies in order to determine how performance is influenced by spray structure and identify promising strategies for further development. The construction of an optically accessible hot-air flow rig has enabled visualisation of DEF injection into flows representative of HD diesel exhaust conditions. High-speed and laser sheet imaging have been applied to capture the injection event and analyse spray development within the flows. Results from ambient shadowgraphy show the extent of variation in spray structure that exists between the systems; further quantified with droplet size distribution data collected using phase Doppler interferometry (PDI). Imaging within the exhaust section indicates that the structure of a spray has a significant impact on droplet entrainment within the flow, in turn affecting the level of spray-wall impingement seen. This suggests knowledge of dosing strategy will be critical for optimal system design and enabling near future dosing rate demands to be met.
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