A numerical study on the quasi-steady spray and soot characteristics for soybean methyl ester and its blends with ethanol using CFD-reduced chemical kinetics approach

Xinwei Cheng*, Suyin Gan, Hoon Kiat Ng

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)
7 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This work numerically examines the quasi-steady spray combustion and soot development for soybean methyl ester (SME) and SME-ethanol blends (S90E10, S70E30). A validated reduced ethanol mechanism (37 species and 149 reactions) was formulated using a temperature sensitivity analysis under auto-ignition and jet-stirred reactor conditions. At initial pressures between 10.0 bar and 60.0 bar, initial temperatures between 750 K and 1350 K and equivalence ratios between 0.5 and 2.0, the ignition delays and key species profiles (C2H5OH, CO2, O2) of the reduced mechanism deviated by 0.5 order and 40%, respectively as compared to the experimental measurements. Subsequently, the reduced ethanol mechanism was combined with a reduced biodiesel mechanism to form a surrogate mechanism (102 species and 446 reactions) for biodiesel-ethanol blends and integrated into OpenFOAM for spray combustion modelling. Under reacting spray conditions at a constant ambient density of 22.8 kg/m3 and ambient temperatures of 900 K and 1000 K, the spray penetrations for SME-ethanol blends were shortened by 35.5% (maximum difference). Smaller flame areas with 60 K higher local flame temperature were obtained. Due to a 20% decrease in acetylene mass fractions and soot formation rates, the peak soot volume fractions for SME-ethanol blends were 19.6% lower.

Original languageEnglish
Article number117540
JournalEnergy
Volume200
Early online date06 Apr 2020
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01 Jun 2020
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd

Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

Keywords

  • Ethanol
  • Reduced chemical kinetics
  • SME
  • Soot
  • Spray combustion

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Civil and Structural Engineering
  • Building and Construction
  • Pollution
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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