Comparative Study of Diesel Oil and Biodiesel Spray Combustion Based on Detailed Chemical Mechanisms

Journal article, 2014

In the present work, a semidetailed combustion mechanism for biodiesel fuel was validated against the measured autoignition delay times and subsequently implemented in the FORTE CFD engine simulation package (Reaction Design Inc., 2010, "FORTE, FOR-UG-40102-1009-UG-1b," Reaction Design Inc., San Diego, CA) to investigate the spray characteristics (e. g., the liquid penetration and flame lift-off distances of rapeseed oil methyl ester (RME) fuel in a constant-volume combustion chamber). The modeling results were compared with the experimental data. Engine simulations were performed for a Volvo D12C heavy-duty diesel engine fueled by RME on a 72 deg sector mesh. Predictions were validated against measured in-cylinder parameters and exhaust emission concentrations. The semidetailed mechanism was shown to be an efficient and accurate representation of actual biodiesel combustion phases. Meanwhile, as a comparative study, the simulations based on a detailed diesel oil surrogate mechanism were performed for diesel oil under the same conditions.