Direct Numerical Simulations of premixed methane flame initiation by pilot n-heptane spray autoignition

Autoignition of n-heptane sprays in a methane/air mixture and the subsequent methane premixed flame ignition, a constant volume configuration relevant to pilot-ignited dual fuel engines, was investigated by DNS. It was found that reducing the pilot fuel quantity, increases its autoignition time. This is attributed to the faster disappearance of the most reactive mixture fraction (predicted from homogeneous reactor calculations) which is quite rich. Consequently, ignition of the n-heptane occurs at leaner mixtures. The premixed methane flame is eventually ignited due to heating gained by the pressure rise caused by the n-heptane oxidation, and heat and mass transfer of intermediates from the n-heptane autoignition kernels. For large amounts of the pilot fuel, the combustion of the n-heptane results in significant adiabatic compression of the methane-air mixture. Hence the slow methane oxidation is accelerated and is further promoted by the presence of species in the oxidizer stream originating from the already ignited regions. For small amounts of the pilot fuel intermediates reach the oxidizer stream faster due to the very lean mixtures surrounding the n-heptane ignition kernels. Therefore, the premixed methane oxidation is initiated at intermediate temperatures. Depending on the amount of n-heptane, different statistical behaviour of the methane oxidation is observed when this is investigated in a reaction progress variable space. In particular for large amounts of n-heptane the methane oxidation follows roughly an autoignition regime, whereas for small amounts of n-heptane methane oxidation is similar to a canonical premixed flame. The data can be used for validation of various turbulent combustion models for dual-fuel combustion.