Experimental and modeling study of the autoignition behavior of a standard oxygenated gasoline fuel
Gasoline surrogate models can be conveniently used to simulate the combustion behavior of fuels in internal combustion engines. Because of limitations in the number of robust models available and the high computational cost of running them, simple surrogates with only 2 or 3 components (namely n-heptane, iso-octane and toluene) have been long preferred to simulate the ignition behavior of gasoline in engine calculations. More recently, thanks to the development of new, well-validated kinetic models and the access to cheap high-performance computing, the scientific and engineering community is utilizing the higher fidelity provided by more complex mixture models. The added detail in composition can in fact better reproduce variation in the fuel reactivity with pressure (an important feature for downsized, boosted conditions) and blending behavior of real fuels. In this study, the ignition behavior of a research grade full blend oxygenated fuel matching the typical specification of US standard grade gasoline has been investigated by means of rapid compression experiments and detailed kinetic calculations. A multicomponent fuel surrogate model has been developed using compositional information and a surrogate optimization tool. Based on the experimental and computational results presented in this study, general considerations about guidelines in the formulation of gasoline fuel surrogates are provided.