As regulatory measures for improved fuel economy and decreased emissions are pushing gasoline engine combustion technologies towards extreme conditions (i.e., boosted and intercooled intake with exhaust gas recirculation), fuel ignition characteristics become increasingly important for enabling stable operation. This study explores the effects of chemical composition on the fundamental ignition behavior of gasoline fuels. Two well-characterized, high-octane, non-oxygenated FACE (Fuels for Advanced Combustion Engines) gasolines, FACE F and FACE G, having similar antiknock indices but different octane sensitivities and chemical compositions are studied. Ignition experiments were conducted in shock tubes and a rapid compression machine (RCM) at nominal pressures of 20 and 40 atm, equivalence ratios of 0.5 and 1.0, and temperatures ranging from 650 to 1270 K. Results at temperatures above 900 K indicate that ignition delay time is similar for these fuels. However, RCM measurements below 900 K demonstrate a stronger negative temperature coefficient behavior for the FACE F gasoline having lower octane sensitivity. In addition, RCM pressure profiles under two-stage ignition conditions illustrate that the magnitude of low-temperature heat release (LTHR) increases with decreasing fuel octane sensitivity. However, intermediate-temperature heat release is shown to increase as fuel octane sensitivity increases. Various surrogate fuel mixtures were formulated to conduct chemical kinetic modeling, and complex KAUST multicomponent surrogate mixtures were shown to reproduce experimentally observed trends better than simpler two-and three-component mixtures composed of n-heptane, iso-octane, and toluene. Measurements in a Cooperative Fuels Research (CFR) engine demonstrated that the KAUST multicomponent surrogates accurately captured the antiknock quality of the FACE gasolines. Simulations were performed using multicomponent surrogates for FACE F and G to reveal the underlying chemical kinetics linking fuel composition with ignition characteristics. A key discovery of this work is the kinetic coupling between aromatics and naphthenes, which affects the radical pool population and thereby controls ignition.

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Iso-paraffinic molecular structures larger than seven carbon atoms in chain length are commonly found in conventional petroleum, Fischer-Tropsch (FT), and other alternative hydrocarbon fuels, but little research has been done on their combustion behavior. Recent studies have focused on either mono-methylated alkanes and/or highly branched compounds (e.g., 2,2,4-trimethylpentane). In order to better understand the combustion characteristics of real fuels, this study presents new experimental data for the oxidation of 2,5-dimethylhexane under a wide variety of temperature, pressure, and equivalence ratio conditions. This new dataset includes jet stirred reactor speciation, shock tube ignition delay, and rapid compression machine ignition delay, which builds upon recently published data for counterflow flame ignition, extinction, and speciation profiles. The low and high temperature oxidation of 2,5-dimethylhexane has been modeled using a comprehensive chemical kinetic model developed using established reaction rate rules. The agreement between the model and data is presented, along with suggestions for improving model predictions. The importance of propene chemistry is highlighted as critical for correct prediction of high temperature ignition delay. The oxidation behavior of 2,5-dimethylhexane is also compared with oxidation behavior of other linear and branched octane isomers, in order to determine the effects of the number of methyl branches on combustion properties. Both experimental data and model predictions indicate that increasing the level of branching decreases fuel reactivity at low and intermediate temperatures. The model is used to elucidate the structural features and reaction pathways responsible for inhibiting the reactivity of 2,5-dimethylhexane. FUEL or CNF, Sarathy et al. submitted July 2013Introduction Detailed chemical kinetic models for transportation fuels have reached a level of fidelity where accurate predictions can be made of combustion phenomenon relevant to the operation of practical devices. Schofield [1] states that these large scale models are adequate as engineering tools for studying the combustion of new fuel molecules. A recent review paper by Pitz and Mueller [2] describing the development of diesel surrogate fuel models concluded that major research gaps remain in modeling high molecular weight (i.e., C 8 and greater) aromatics, alkyl aromatics, cyclo-alkanes, and lightly branched iso-alkanes. The present study is concerned with the combustion of branched alkanes, specifically 2,5-dimethylhexane, which has been reported as a component of petroleum combustion exhaust, smog, and tobacco smoke [3]. Branched alkanes are important components of conventional diesel and jet fuels derived from petroleum [2,4]; synthetic Fischer-Tropsch diesel and jet fuels derived from coal, natural gas, and/or biomass [5,6]; and renewable diesel and jet fuels derived from thermochemical treatment of bio-derived fats and oils (e.g., hydrotreated renewable jet (HRJ) fuels) [7,8]. Detailed com...

The influence of blending n-butanol at 20% by volume on the ignition delay times for a reference gasoline was studied in a rapid compression machine (RCM) for stoichiometric fuel/air mixtures at 20 bar and 678 K-858 K. Delay times for the blend lay between those of stoichiometric gasoline and stoichiometric n-butanol across the temperature range studied. At lower temperatures, delays for the blend were however, much closer to those of n-butanol than gasoline despite n-butanol being only 20% of the mixture. Under these conditions n-butanol acted as an octane enhancer over and above what might be expected from a simple linear blending law. The ability of a gasoline surrogate, based on a toluene reference fuel (TRF), to capture the main trends of the gasoline/ n-butanol blending behaviour was also tested within the RCM. The 3-component TRF based on a mixture of toluene, n-heptane and iso-octane was able to capture the trends well across the temperature range studied. Simulations of ignition delay times were also performed using a detailed blended nbutanol/TRF mechanism based on the adiabatic core assumption and volume histories from the experimental data. Overall, the model captured the main features of the blending behaviour, although at the lowest temperatures, predicted ignition delays for stoichiometric n-butanol were longer than those observed. A bruteforce local sensitivity analysis was performed to evaluate the main chemical processes driving the ignition behaviour of the TRF, n-butanol and blended fuels. The reactions of fuel + OH dominated the sensitivities at lower temperatures, with H abstraction from nn-butanol and the blend. At higher temperatures the decomposition of H 2 O 2 and reactions of HO 2 and that of formaldehyde with OH became critical, in common with the ignition behaviour of other fuels. Remaining uncertainties in the rates of these key reactions are discussed.

Gasoline surrogate fuels are widely used to understand the fundamental combustion properties of complex refinery gasoline fuels. The compositional effects on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and soot formation were investigated experimentally for gasoline surrogate mixtures comprising n-heptane, iso-octane, and toluene in counterflow diffusion flames. A comprehensive kinetic model for the gasoline surrogate mixtures was developed to accurately predict the fuel oxidation along with the formation of PAHs and soot in flames. This combined model was first tested against ignition delay times and laminar flame speeds data. The proposed model for the formation and growth of PAHs up to coronene (C24H12) was based on previous studies and was tested against existing and present new experimental data. Additionally, in the accompanied soot model, PAHs with sizes larger than (including) pyrene were used for the inception of soot particles, followed by particle coagulations and PAH condensation/chemical reactions on soot surfaces. The major pathways for the formation of PAHs were also identified for the surrogate mixtures. The model accurately captures the synergistic PAH formation characteristics observed experimentally for n-heptane/toluene and isooctane/toluene binary mixtures. Furthermore, the present experimental and modeling results also elucidated different trends in the formation of larger PAHs and soot between binary n-heptane/iso-octane and ternary nheptane/iso-octane/toluene mixtures. Propargyl radicals (C3H3) were shown to be important in the formation and growth of PAHs for n-heptane/iso-octane mixtures when the iso-octane concentration increased; however, reactions involving benzyl radicals (C6H5CH2) played a significant role in the formation of PAHs for nheptane/iso-octane/toluene mixtures. These results indicated that the formation of PAHs and subsequently soot was strongly affected by the composition of gasoline surrogate mixtures.

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