A study of soot formation in a rapid compression machine at conditions representative of cold-fast-idle in spark ignition engines

Abstract

The soot yield, defined as the ratio of the soot mass to the carbon mass in the fuel, for the homogeneous combustion of a rich fuel-air mixture has been measured in a rapid compression machine using the laser light extinction method. The temperature and pressure conditions are representative of those in spark-ignition direct-injection engines at cold-fast-idle. The fuels used are a certification gasoline (with 28% aromatic content) and a blend of the gasoline with toluene (the blend had 40% aromatic content by volume) so that the sensitivity of soot formation to the fuel aromatic content could be assessed. Beyond a threshold fuel equivalence ratio (ϕ) value, the soot yield increases exponentially with ϕ. The soot yield of the gasoline–toluene blend is four to six times higher than that of the gasoline. The soot yield decreases exponentially with temperature, by a factor of 0.58 for every 10 K increase in temperature. In the 657–695 K temperature range, the threshold ϕ value increases linearly from approximately 2.4 to 2.7, at a rate of 0.1 point per 10 K rise in temperature. This temperature dependence is insensitive to the charge density.