Soot Formation and Oxidation: Development of a Numerical Model and Comparison with Experimental Data from a High Pressure Diesel Combustion Bomb

The combustion of diesel fuels injected into a bomb at 25 bar and 520°C has been modelled and studied experimentally using laser diagnostics. A CFD model of diesel spray injection was combined with a database of results from a detailed chemical kinetic model.

All fuels showed the presence of small aromatics throughout combustion (i.e. the fuel aromatics were not completely broken down). The model gave good agreement on spray penetrations and soot volume fractions around the edges of the spray. Far from the spray, the model over-predicted the amount of soot due to the absence of an OH oxidation mechanism in the CFD code. This demonstrates the need to progress to the use of a reduced chemistry scheme.