Effect of Inhomogeneities in the End Gas Temperature Field on the Autoignition in SI Engines

This paper reports an one–dimensional modeling procedure of the hot spot autoignition with a detailed chemistry and multi–species transport in the end gas in an SI engine. The governing equations for continuity of mass, momentum, energy and species for an one–dimensional, unsteady, compressible, laminar, reacting flow and thermal fields are discretized and solved by a fully implicit method. A chemical kinetic mechanism is used for the primary reference fuels n–heptane and iso–octane. This mechanism contains 510 chemical reactions and 75 species. The change of the cylinder pressure is calculated from both flame propagation and piston movement. The turbulent velocity of the propagating flame is modeled by the Wiebe function. Adiabatic conditions, calculated by minimizing Gibb's free energy at each time step, are assumed behind the flame front in the burned gas. The hot spot autoignition is presented and the ignition history is discussed as variations of the calculated temperature and species in space and time. Different sample calculations have been performed, in order to allow investigation of the effect of inhomogeneities of the initial temperature and species on the autoignition in an SI engine.