The Relationship Between Octane Quality and Octane Requirement

The paper describes the use of Road octane number equations to predict the antiknock performance of motor gasoline under a wide variety of operating conditions. It then goes on to describe how reference fuels can be used to determine the octane requirement of engines in terms of Research octane number, Motor octane number and front-end quality and how the information can be used to calculate what proportion of any given market will be satisfied by gasolines of known inspection properties.

Brief mention is also made of the relationship between calculated values of car satisfaction and observed levels of customer satisfaction and the effects of lead, aromatics and olefins on road antiknock performance.

Future octane quality is discussed and the need for close co-operation between the oil industry, the motor industry and the legislators is identified.