Numerical and Experimental Investigation of Laminar Burning Velocities of iso-Octane, Ethanol and n-Butanol 2009-01-2784

Fuels containing oxygenates have become more and more important for spark ignition engines in recent years. Oxygenates are either used as an octane booster or as a biofuel component for fulfilling legislative regulations. Ethanol has been well established for blend rates up to 10%vol_liq. On the other hand butanol has been introduced as an alternative biofuel component.

The effect of the laminar burning velocity of different fuel components on modern engine development is investigated by conducting experiments under high initial pressure and temperature. Initial conditions in this work are a pressure of p = 10 bar and a temperature of T = 373 K. Experiments were done at different fuel - air ratios between 0.8 and 1.3. Test fuels were the pure fuel components iso-octane, ethanol and n-butanol. Different chemical kinetic mechanisms for iso-octane, ethanol and n-butanol from literature are used to calculate laminar burning velocities. The experimental setup consists of a spherical closed pressurized combustion vessel with optical access. Schlieren measurements coupled with a high speed camera are used for image acquisition to track the expanding flame front. Finally, a post processing tool is used to extrapolate the measurements to zero stretch. Numerical results are discussed in detail and compared with the experimental results as well as references from the literature.