Simulation of supercritical diesel jets using the PC-SAFT EoS

Abstract

A numerical framework has been developed to simulate supercritical Diesel injection using a compressible density-based solver of the Navier-Stokes equations along with the conservative formulation of the energy equation. Multi-component fuel-air mixing is simulated by considering a diffused interface approximation. The thermodynamic properties are predicted using the Perturbed Chain Statistical Associating Fluid Theory (PC-SAFT) real-fluid equation of state (EoS). This molecular-based EoS requires three empirically determined but well-known parameters to model the properties of a specific component, and thus, there is no need for extensive model calibration, as is typically the case when the NIST library is utilised. Moreover, PC-SAFT can handle flexibly the thermodynamic properties of multi-component mixtures, which is an advantage compared to the NIST library, where only limited component combinations are supported. This has allowed for the properties of Diesel fuel to be modelled as surrogates comprising four, five, eight and nine components. The proposed numerical approach improves the overall computational time and overcomes the previously observed spurious pressure oscillations associated with the utilization of conservative schemes. In the absence of experimental data, advection test cases and shock tube problems are included to validate the developed framework. Finally, two-dimensional simulations of planar jets of n-dodecane and a four component Diesel surrogate are included to demonstrate the capability of the developed methodology to predict supercritical Diesel fuel mixing into air.