Using Chemical Kinetics to Understand Effects of Fuel Type and Compression Ratio on Knock-Mitigation Effectiveness of Various EGR Constituents

Exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) can be used to mitigate knock in SI engines. However, experiments have shown that the effectiveness of various EGR constituents to suppress knock varies with fuel type and compression ratio (CR). To understand some of the underlying mechanisms by which fuel composition, octane sensitivity (S), and CR affect the knock-mitigation effectiveness of EGR constituents, the current paper presents results from a chemical-kinetics modeling study. The numerical study was conducted with CHEMKIN, imposing experimentally acquired pressure traces on a closed reactor model. Simulated conditions include combinations of three RON-98 (Research Octane Number) fuels with two octane sensitivities and distinctive compositions, three EGR diluents, and two CRs (12:1 and 10:1). The experimental results point to the important role of thermal stratification in the end-gas to smooth peak heat-release rate (HRR) and prevent acoustic noise. To model the effects of thermal stratification due to heat-transfer losses to the combustion-chamber walls, the initial temperature at the start of the CHEMKIN simulation was successively reduced below the adiabatic core temperature while observing changes in end-gas heat release and its effect on the reactant temperature.

The results reveal that knock-prone conditions generally exhibit an increased amount of heat release in the colder temperature zones, thus counteracting the HRR-smoothing effect of the naturally occurring thermal stratification. This detrimental effect becomes more pronounced for the low-S fuel due to its significant Negative Temperature Coefficient (NTC) autoignition characteristics. This explains the generally reduced effectiveness of dilution for the low-S fuel, and higher knock intensity for the cycles with autoignition.