Radical species in the cool-flame regime of diesel combustion: a comparative numerical and experimental study

Multidimensional modelling and experimental measurements are performed to study the early stages of diesel combustion. Numerical simulation is realised by means of a customised version of the KIVA 3 code, including the Shell model for auto-ignition. Experimentally, a spectroscopic analysis of the burning mixture is carried out under real operating conditions on a diesel engine equipped with an optically accessible combustion chamber. Changing the fuel injection law makes for auto-ignition to occur in environments characterised by different values of mixture pressure and temperature. Dependence of the ignition delay time upon this last variable is shown to follow a law with a negative temperature coefficient in the middle range of values. By means of natural chemiluminescence spectra, OH, CH and HCO radicals are detected as products of the reactions of thermal decomposition of the hydrocarbon molecules preceding auto-ignition. Distribution of the radicals' emission intensity within the combustion chamber permits the localisation of auto-ignition sites. These are found to be in good agreement with the points of high energetic chemical activity, individuated numerically, under all the considered operating conditions. Experimentally identified radicals and fictitious species entering the reduced kinetic scheme employed within the numerical simulation are shown to exhibit an analogous behaviour regarding the trend with respect to time of the total amount of concentration, and, in a spatial sense, their distribution within the combustion chamber at the time of auto-ignition.