Full Length ArticleA phenomenological explanation of the autoignition propagation under HCCI conditions

- A phenomenological explanation of the autoignition propagation has been developed.
- The autoignition propagation velocity was measured by means of chemiluminescence.
- Sequential autoignition seems to be controlled by pressure waves based phenomena.
- Diffusive and expansion phenomena have negligible effects to autoignition propagation.
- Turbulence causes high cycle-to-cycle variation of the propagation velocity.

A phenomenological explanation about the autoignition propagation under HCCI conditions is developed in this paper. To do so, diffusive effects from the burned zones to the fresh mixture, pressure waves based effects and expansion effects caused by combustion are taken into account. Additionally, different Damköhler numbers have been defined and evaluated in order to characterize the phenomenon and quantify the relevance of each effect. The theoretical explanation has been evaluated by means of chemiluminescence measurements performed in a Rapid Compression Expansion Machine (RCEM), which allow to estimate the velocity of propagation of the autoignition front. The results showed that under HCCI conditions the autoignition propagation is controlled, in general, by the pressure waves established in the combustion chamber, since the characteristic time of the autoignition propagation is too short to assume the absence of pressure gradients in the chamber. Thus, the thermodynamic conditions reached behind the pressure wave promote the autoignition and explain the high propagation velocities associated to the reaction front. Besides, the results also showed that the contribution of diffusive phenomena on the propagation is negligible, since the characteristic time of diffusion is too long compared to the characteristic time of the autoignition propagation. Finally, the experimental measurements showed that the autoignition propagation is affected by a really relevant cycle-to-cycle variation. The turbulence generated by the combustion has, by definition, an aleatory behavior, leading to random heterogeneity distribution and, therefore, to somewhat random autoignition propagation.