Chemiluminescence analysis of the effect of butanol-diesel fuel blends on the spray-combustion process in an experimental common rail diesel engine

Combustion process was studied from the injection until the late combustion phase in an high swirl optically accessible combustion bowl connected to a single cylinder two-stroke high pressure common rail compression ignition engine. Commercial diesel and blends of diesel and n-butanol (20%: BU20 and 40%: BU40) were used for the experiments. A pilot plus main injection strategy was investigated fixing the injection pressure and fuel mass injected per stroke. Two main injection timings and different pilot-main dwell times were explored achieving for any strategy a mixing controlled combustion. Advancing the main injection start, an increase in net engine working cycle (>40%) together with a strong smoke number decrease (>80%) and NO concentration increase (congruent to 50%) were measured for all pilot injection timings. Compared to diesel fuel, butanol induced a decrease in soot emission and an increase in net engine working area when butanol ratio increased in the blend. A noticeable increase in NOx was detected at the exhaust for BU40 with a slight effect of the dwell-time.