FUEL INJECTION VALVE, AND FUEL INJECTION APPARATUS PROVIDED WITH THE SAME

A fuel injection valve includes: a needle valve with a seat surface at a distal end; a nozzle body with a seat section on which the seat surface rests and with an injection opening disposed downstream of the seat section; and a swirl flow generating section with a spiral groove for causing fuel injected via the injection opening to swirl. The seat surface includes a first contact point. The first contact point contacts a second contact point included in the seat section during valve closing. A line segment that is drawn by connecting the first contact point and the second contact point during valve opening intersects a virtual straight line passing a bottom of a first groove section that appears the most downstream side of a cross section of the swirl flow generating portion in a plane including a central axis of the needle valve and a bottom of a second groove section that appears one step upstream side of the first groove portion. Thus, the fuel that is contracted as it passes through the spiral groove can avoid collision with the needle valve, so that a decrease in a flow velocity of the fuel as it swirls through the spiral groove is suppressed.