A surrogate mixture and kinetic mechanism for emulating the evaporation and autoignition characteristics of gasoline fuel

Gasoline direct-injection spark-ignition engines and gasoline direct-injection compression-ignition engines have received attention due to their higher fuel economy with respect to conventional port fuel injected internal combustion spark-ignition engines. Combustion modeling of these types of engines requires a fuel surrogate that mimics both physical (e.g., evaporation) and chemical (e.g., combustion) characteristics of the gasoline fuel. In this work, we propose a novel methodology for the formulation of a gasoline surrogate based on the essential physical and chemical properties of the target gasoline fuel. Using the proposed procedure, a surrogate with seven components has been identified to emulate the physical and chemical characteristics of a real non-oxygenated gasoline fuel, RD387. A surrogate kinetic mechanism was developed by combining available detailed kinetic mechanisms from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory library. The modeling results for distillation curve, ignition delay and laminar flame speed were validated against available experimental data in the literature. The surrogate and gasoline fuels display similar physical/chemical properties, including distillation curve, H/C ratio, density, heating value, and ignition behavior and flame propagation over a wide range of pressures, temperatures, and equivalence ratios. (C) 2015 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.