Spark ignition (SI) and compression ignition (CI) engine fuels are characterized by standards developed in 1927 and 1932, respectively. Over the course of these years, modern engines have drastically changed their operating conditions; however, these fuel indexes are still used today with no significant change to their definition. The requirements for fuels in future advanced engines, employing low temperature combustion (LTC) concepts, may be somewhere between gasoline and diesel in terms of their autoignition characteristics. With this focus, this study examines methodologies to bridge the gap between those fuels classified between gasoline and diesel.
First, the ignition delay times (IDTs) at various temperatures obtained from an ignition quality tester (IQT), was correlated with the octane index (OI), an anti-knock scale combining the effect of the operating condition and the anti-knock quality of the fuel given by the RON/MON. This study was extended to introduce a new concept of IDT sensitivity (IDS) in an IQT. It was observed that IDS could be correlated with fuel octane sensitivity (OS = RON − MON), offering an additional methodology to estimate RON/MON with an IQT.
Chemical kinetics are most sensitive to fuel molecular structure; remarkable progress has been made in covering high carbon-number fuels, relevant to gasoline fuels, for better understanding of the chemical processes that lead to engine knock. To this end, a methodology to relate IDTs calculated from homogeneous batch-reactor simulations with gasoline fuel indexes was developed. This methodology enabled correlation of a kinetic property (i.e., IDT) with RON/MON values.
The influence of various components present in gasolines, and their anti-knock quality, was investigated. A spinning band distillation system was utilized to separate the components of various gasolines. Ignition quality and the functional group distribution of various boiling ranges were investigated with an IQT and 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Finally, the importance of physical and chemical fuel properties in fuel stratification in LTC engine concepts was undertaken in a CI engine with a multi hole solid-cone injector. The findings suggest that the physical properties of fuel played a dominant role when fuel stratification occurred in the engine combustion chamber.
Date of Award | Jul 2018 |
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Original language | English (US) |
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Awarding Institution | - Physical Sciences and Engineering
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Supervisor | Mani Sarathy (Supervisor) |
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- combustion
- fuel chemistry
- IC engines
- transport fuels
- energy
- hydrocarbons