Chemical model of gasoline-ethanol blends for internal combustion engine applications

Journal article, 2010

A semi-detailed chemical mechanism for combustion of gasoline-ethanol blends, which is based on sub-mechanisms of gasoline surrogate and for ethanol is developed and validated aiming at CFD engine modeling. The gasoline surrogate is composed of iso-octane, toluene, and n-heptane in volumetric proportions of 55%:35%:10%, respectively. In this way, the hydrogen-carbon atomic ratio H/C, which is around 1.87 for real gasoline, is accurately reproduced as well as a mixture equivalence ratio that is important for Gasoline Direct Injection engine applications. The integrated mechanism for gasoline-ethanol blends includes 120 species participating in 677 reactions. The mechanism is tested against experimental data on ignition delay times and laminar flame speeds, obtained for various n-heptane/iso-octane/toluene/ethanol-air mixtures under various equivalence ratios, initial temperatures, and pressures. Chemical, thermodynamic and transport properties used in the calculations are discussed.