The objectives of this report are to: (1) Develop detailed chemical kinetic reaction models for components of fuels, including olefins and cycloalkanes used in diesel, spark-ignition and HCCI engines; (2) Develop surrogate mixtures of hydrocarbon components to represent real fuels and lead to efficient reduced combustion models; and (3) Characterize the role of fuel composition on production of emissions from practical automotive engines.

Development of detailed chemical kinetic models for advanced petroleum-based and nonpetroleum based fuels is a difficult challenge because of the hundreds to thousands of different components in these fuels and because some of these fuels contain components that have not been considered in the past. It is important to develop detailed chemical kinetic models for these fuels since the models can be put into engine simulation codes used for optimizing engine design for maximum efficiency and minimal pollutant emissions. For example, these chemistry-enabled engine codes can be used to optimize combustion chamber shape and fuel injection timing. They also allow insight into how the composition of advanced petroleum-based and non-petroleum based fuels affect engine performance characteristics. Additionally, chemical kinetic models can be used separately to interpret important in-cylinder experimental data and gain insight into advanced engine combustion processes such as HCCI and lean burn engines. The objectives are: (1) Develop detailed chemical kinetic reaction models for components of advanced petroleum-based and non-petroleum based fuels. These fuels models include components from vegetable-oil-derived biodiesel, oil-sand derived fuel, alcohol fuels and other advanced bio-based and alternative fuels. (2) Develop detailed chemical kinetic reaction models for mixtures of non-petroleum and petroleum-based components to represent real fuels and lead to efficient reduced combustion models needed for engine modeling codes. (3) Characterize the role of fuel composition on efficiency and pollutant emissions from practical automotive engines.

This overview compiles the on-going research in Europe to enlarge and deepen the understanding of the reaction mechanisms and pathways associated with the combustion of an increased range of fuels. Focus is given to the formation of a large number of hazardous minor pollutants and the inability of current combustion models to predict the formation of minor products such as alkenes, dienes, aromatics, aldehydes and soot nano-particles which have a deleterious impact on both the environment and on human health. Cleaner Combustion describes, at a fundamental level, the reactive chemistry of minor pollutants within extensively validated detailed mechanisms for traditional fuels, but also innovative surrogates, describing the complex chemistry of new environmentally important bio-fuels. Divided into five sections, a broad yet detailed coverage of related research is provided. Beginning with the development of detailed kinetic mechanisms, chapters go on to explore techniques to obtain reliable experimental data, soot and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, mechanism reduction and uncertainty analysis, and elementary reactions. This comprehensive coverage of current research provides a solid foundation for researchers, managers, policy makers and industry operators working in or developing this innovative and globally relevant field.

Emission standards for diesel engines in vehicles have been steadily reduced in recent years, and a great deal of research and development effort has been focused on reducing particulate and nitrogen oxide emissions. One promising approach to reducing emissions involves the addition of oxygen to the fuel, generally by adding an oxygenated compound to the normal diesel fuel. Miyamoto et al. [1] showed experimentally that particulate levels can be significantly reduced by adding oxygenated species to the fuel. They found the Bosch smoke number (a measure of the particulate or soot levels in diesel exhaust) falls from about 55% for conventional diesel fuel to less than 1% when the oxygen content of the fuel is above about 25% by mass, as shown in Figure 1. It has been well established that addition of oxygenates to automotive fuel, including both diesel fuel as well as gasoline, reduces NOx and CO emissions by reducing flame temperatures. This is the basis for addition of oxygenates to produce reformulated gasoline in selected portions of the country. Of course, this is also accompanied by a slight reduction in fuel economy. A new overall picture of diesel combustion has been developed by Dec [2], in which laser diagnostic studies identified stages in diesel combustion that had not previously been recognized. These stages are summarized in Figure 2. The evolution of the diesel spray is shown, starting as a liquid jet that vaporizes and entrains hot air from the combustion chamber. This relatively steady process continues as long as fuel is being injected. In particular, Dec showed that the fuel spray vaporizes and mixes with air and products of earlier combustion to provide a region in which a gas phase, premixed fuel-rich ignition and burn occurs. The products of this ignition are then observed experimentally to lead rapidly to formation of soot particles, which subsequently are consumed in a diffusion flame. Recently, Flynn et al. [3] used a chemical kinetic and mixing model to study the premixed, rich ignition process. Using n-heptane as a representative diesel fuel, they showed that addition of an oxygenated additive, methanol, to the fuel reduced the concentrations of a number of hydrocarbon species in the products of the rich ignition. Specifically, methanol addition reduced the total concentrations of acetylene, ethylene and 1,3-butadiene, as well as propargyl and vinyl radicals, in the ignition products. These are the same species shown in a number of studies [4-6] to be responsible for formation of aromatic and polycyclic aromatic species in flames, species which lead eventually to production of soot. Flynn et al. did not, however, examine the kinetic processes responsible for the computed reduction in production of soot precursor species. At least two hypotheses have been advanced to explain the role that oxygenated species play in diesel ignition and the reduction in the concentrations of these species. The first is that the additive, methanol in the case of Flynn et al., does not contain any C-C bonds and cannot then produce significant levels of the species such as acetylene, ethylene or the unsaturated radicals which are known to lead to aromatic species. The second hypothesis is that the product distribution changes very naturally as oxygen is added and the overall equivalence ratio is reduced. In the present study, we repeat the ignition calculations of Flynn et al. and include a number of other oxygenated species to determine which of these theories is more applicable to this model.

This book comprehensively discusses diesel combustion phenomena like ignition delay, fuel-air mixing, rate of heat release, and emissions of smoke, particulate and nitric oxide. It enables quantitative evaluation of these important phenomena and parameters. Most importantly, it attempts to model them with constants that are independent of engine types and hence they could be applied by the engineers and researchers for a general engine. This book emphasizes the importance of the spray at the wall in precisely describing the heat release and emissions for most of the engines on and off-road. It gives models for heat release and emissions. Every model is thoroughly validated by detailed experiments using a broad range of engines. The book describes an elegant quasi-one-dimensional model for heat release in diesel engines with single as well as multiple injections. The book describes how the two aspects, namely, fuel injection rate and the diameter of the combustion bowl in the piston, have enabled meeting advanced emission, noise, and performance standards. The book also discusses the topics of computational fluid dynamics encompassing RANS and LES models of turbulence. Given the contents, this book will be useful for students, researchers and professionals working in the area of vehicle engineering and engine technology. This book will also be a good professional book for practising engineers in the field of combustion engines and automotive engineering.

This book provides a rigorous treatment of the coupling of chemical reactions and fluid flow. Combustion-specific topics of chemistry and fluid mechanics are considered and tools described for the simulation of combustion processes. This edition is completely restructured. Mathematical Formulae and derivations as well as the space-consuming reaction mechanisms have been replaced from the text to appendix. A new chapter discusses the impact of combustion processes on the atmosphere, the chapter on auto-ignition is extended to combustion in Otto- and Diesel-engines, and the chapters on heterogeneous combustion and on soot formation are heavily revised.