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 and Hoon Kiat Ng

Energy, 2020, vol. 200, issue C

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.

Keywords: Ethanol; Reduced chemical kinetics; SME; Soot; Spray combustion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:200:y:2020:i:c:s0360544220306472

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2020.117540

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