An Optical Study on the Combustion of Gasoline/PODEn Blends in a Constant Volume Vessel

Polyoxymethylene dimethyl ethers (PODEn) have high cetane number, high oxygen content and high volatility, therefore can be added to gasoline to optimize the performance and soot emission of Gasoline Compression Ignition (GCI) combustion. High speed imaging was used to investigate the spray and combustion process of gasoline/PODEn blends (PODEn volume fraction 0%-30%) under various ambient conditions and injection strategies in a constant volume vessel. Results showed that with an increase of PODEn proportion from 10% to 30%, liquid-phase penetration of the spray increased slightly, ignition delay decreased from 3.8 ms to 2.0 ms and flame lift off length decreased 29.4%, causing a significant increase of the flame luminance. For blends with 20% PODEn, when ambient temperature decreased from 893 K to 823 K, the ignition delay increased 1.3 ms and the flame luminance got lower. When increasing the injection pressure, the liquid phase length and the ignition delay got a little longer and the flame luminance and flame duration decreased. Long spray results showed that soot formed in higher PODEn flames oxidized earlier and quicker. The parameter changes that can extend the ignition delay all gave rise to the decrease of flame luminance because of the increase of the proportion of premixed combustion.