Abstract
The CRC Fuels for Advanced Combustion Engines (FACE) WorkingGroup has provided a matrix of experimental diesel fuels for use instudies on the effects of three parameters, Cetane number (CN),aromatics content, and 90 vol% distillation temperature (T90), oncombustion and emissions characteristics of advanced combustionstrategies. Various types of fuel analyses and engine experimentswere performed in well-known research institutes. This paperreviews a collection of research findings obtained with these ninefuels. An extensive collection of analyses were performed by members ofthe FACE working group on the FACE diesel fuels as a means ofaiding in understanding the linkage between fuel properties andcombustion and emissions performance. These analyses includednon-traditional chemical techniques as well as established ASTMtests. In a few cases, both ASTM tests and advanced analyses agreedthat some design variables differed from their target values whenthe fuels were produced. This review summarizes six collective engine experimentalstudies performed with FACE fuels with various types of enginesunder a range of conditions. Engine experiments under variousoperating conditions were performed with a 0.517-liter HCCIsingle-cylinder engine (SCE) and 4-cylinder 1.9-liter high-speeddirect-injection (HSDI) diesel engine at Oak Ridge NationalLaboratory (ORNL), 0.744-liter DI diesel SCE at Navistar, and2.44-liter DI diesel SCE and Cooperative Fuel Research (CFR) engineat National Research Council Canada (NRCC). The engine operatingconditions of the six experimental programs can be categorized intoone conventional diesel combustion (CDC), two homogeneous-chargecompression ignition (HCCI), and three low-temperature combustion(LTC) modes. All six programs agreed that CN exhibited thestrongest impacts on both combustion and emissions among the threedesign variables. As expected lower CN fuels exhibited longerignition delay, which provided longer mixing periods. However,effects of aromatics were rather inconsistent in the engineexperiments. In the HCCI studies higher aromatics fuels exhibitedhigher soot but little effect on NOx. In the two LTC studies higheraromatics and lower CN fuels exhibited higher NOX, whereas thearomatic impact on soot production was negligible. T90 effects weresimilar to those of CN, but at a lesser magnitude. Higher T90 fuelsexhibited longer ignition delay in all experiments.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1648-1660 |
Number of pages | 13 |
Journal | SAE International Journal of Engines |
Volume | 5 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Sep 10 2012 |
Funding
The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of Kevin Stork and Steve Przesmitzki of the US Department of Energy, Office of Vehicle Technologies for funding this study. The authors also thank the authors of the individual studies upon which this review is based and the CRC FACE Working Group for their collaboration and support.