Multi-zone modeling of combustion and emissions formation in DI diesel engine operating on ethanol–diesel fuel blends

Abstract

A multi-zone model for calculation of the closed cycle of a direct injection (DI) diesel engine is applied for the interesting case of its operation with ethanol–diesel fuel blends, the ethanol (bio-fuel) being considered recently as a promising extender to petroleum distillates. Although there are many experimental studies, there is an apparent scarcity of theoretical models scrutinizing the formation mechanisms of combustion generated emissions when using bio-fuels. This is a two dimensional, multi-zone model with the issuing fuel jets divided into several discrete volumes, called ‘zones’, formed along and across the direction of the fuel injection. The model follows each zone, with its own time history, as the spray penetrates into the swirling air environment of the combustion chamber. Droplet evaporation and jet mixing models are used to determine the amount of fuel and entrained air in each zone available for combustion. The mass, energy and state equations are applied in each zone to provide local temperatures and cylinder pressure histories. The concentrations of the various constituents are calculated by adopting a chemical equilibrium scheme for the C–H–O–N system of eleven species considered, together with chemical rate equations for calculation of nitric oxide (NO) and a model for net soot formation. The results from the computer program, implementing the analysis, for the in cylinder pressure, exhaust NO concentration and soot density compare well with the corresponding measurements from an experimental investigation conducted on a fully automated test bed, standard ‘Hydra’, DI diesel engine located at the authors’ laboratory, which is operated with ethanol–diesel fuel blends containing 5%, 10% and 15% (by vol.) ethanol. Iso-contour plots of equivalence ratio, temperature, NO and soot inside the cylinder at various instants of time, when using these ethanol–diesel fuel blends against the diesel fuel (baseline fuel), shed light on the mechanisms underlying the combustion and pollutants formation. They reveal how the widely differing properties of ethanol in these blends, against the normal diesel fuel, affect greatly the combustion mechanism and the related emitted pollutants.