A Computational Study of the Effects of EGR and Intake-Pressure Boost on DME Autoignition Characteristics over Wide Ranges of Engine Speed

This study has been computationally investigated how the DME autoignition reactivity is affected by EGR and intake-pressure boost over various engine speed. CHEMKIN-PRO was used as a solver and chemical-kinetics mechanism for DME was utilized from Curran's model. We examined first the influence of EGR addition on autoignition reactivity using contribution matrix. Investigations concentrate on the HCCI combustion of DME at wide ranges of engine speeds and intake-pressure boost with EGR rates and their effects on variations of autoignition timings, combustion durations in two-stage combustion process in-detail including reaction rates of dominant reactions involved in autoignition process. The results show that EGR addition increases the combustion duration by lowering reaction rates. It was also found that autoignition timings were very sensitive to boost pressure due to boost pressure enhances the reactivity of intermediate species but combustion durations dominantly depend on the EGR addition. Also, high engine speed under EGR addition increases the burn duration greatly. Finally, the combined effects of EGR and boost pressure over wide ranges of engine speed are showed that it is the beneficial method to operate HCCI engine without knock at high load due to substantial reduction of peak of heat-release rate by controlling low temperature heat release.