Experimental validation of a kinetic multi-component mechanism in a wide HCCI engine operating range for mixtures of n-heptane, iso-octane and toluene: Influence of EGR parameters

The parameters that are present in exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) are believed to provide an important contribution to control the auto-ignition process of the homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) in an engine. For the investigation of the behaviour of the auto-ignition process, a kinetic multi-component mechanism has been developed in former work, containing 62 reactions and 49 species for mixtures of n-heptane, iso-octane and toluene. This paper presents an experimental validation of this mechanism, comparing the calculated pressure, heat release, ignition delays and CO2 emissions with experimental data performed on a HCCI engine. The validation is performed in a broad range of EGR parameters by varying the dilution by N2 and CO2 from 0 to 46 vol.%, changing the EGR temperature from 30 to 120 °C, altering the addition of CO and NO from 0 to 170 ppmv and varying the addition of CH2O from 0 to 1400 ppmv. These validations were performed respecting the HCCI conditions for the inlet temperature and the equivalence ratio. The results showed that the mechanism is validated experimentally in dilution ranges going up to 21–30 vol.%, depending on the species of dilution and over the whole range of the EGR temperature. The mechanism is validated over the whole range of CO and CH2O addition. As for the addition of NO, the mechanism is validated quantitatively up to 50 ppmv and qualitatively up to 170 ppmv.