Optimization of combustion chamber geometry and operating conditions for compression ignition engine fueled with pre-blended gasoline-diesel fuel

In this study, experiments and numerical simulations were used to improve the fuel efficiency of compression ignition engine using a gasoline-diesel blended fuel and an optimization technology. The blended fuel is directly injected into the cylinder with various blending ratios. Combustion and emission characteristics were investigated to explore the effects of gasoline ratio on fuel blend. The present study showed that the advantages of gasoline-diesel blended fuel, high thermal efficiency and low emission, were maximized using the numerical optimization method. The ignition delay and maximum pressure rise rate increased with the proportion of gasoline. As the gasoline fraction increased, the combustion duration and the indicated mean effective pressure decreased. The homogeneity of the fuel-air mixture was improved due to longer ignition delay. Soot emission was significantly reduced up to 90% compared to that of conventional diesel. The nitrogen oxides emissions of the blended fuel increased slightly when the start of injection was retarded toward top dead center. For the numerical study, KIVA-CHEMKIN multi-dimensional CFD code was used to model the combustion and emission characteristics of gasoline-diesel blended fuel. The micro genetic algorithm coupled with the KIVA-CHEMKIN code were used to optimize the combustion chamber shape and operating conditions to improve the combustion performance of the blended fuel engine. The optimized chamber geometry enhanced the fuel efficiency, for a level of nitrogen oxides similar to that of conventional diesel over a variety of operation ranges.