ABSTRACT
This paper describes the development and application of a novel optical technique for the measurement of liquid film thickness formed on surfaces during the impingement of automotive fuel sprays. The technique makes use of the change of the light scattering characteristics of a metal surface with known roughness, when liquid is deposited. Important advantages of the technique over previously established methods are the ability to measure the time-dependent spatial distribution of the liquid film without a need to add a fluorescent tracer to the liquid, while the measurement principle is not influenced by changes of the pressure and temperature of the liquid or the surrounding gas phase. Also, there is no need for non-fluorescing surrogate fuels. However, an in situ calibration of the dependence of signal intensity on liquid film thickness is required. The developed method can be applied to measure the time-dependent and two-dimensional distribution of the liquid fuel film thickness on the piston or the liner of gasoline direct injection (GDI) engines. The applicability of this technique was evaluated with impinging sprays of several linear alkanes and alcohols with different thermo-physical properties. The surface temperature of the impingement plate was controlled to simulate the range of piston surface temperatures inside a GDI engine. Two sets of liquid film thickness measurements were obtained. During the first set, the surface temperature of the plate was kept constant, while the spray of different fuels interacted with the surface. In the second set, the plate temperature was adjusted to match the boiling temperature of each fuel. In this way, the influence of the surface temperature on the liquid film created by the spray of different fuels and their evaporation characteristics could be demonstrated.
ABSTRACT
Schlieren [Schlieren and Shadowgraphy Techniques (McGraw-Hill, 2001); Optics of Flames (Butterworths, 1963)] is a non-intrusive technique that can be used to detect density variations in a medium, and thus, under constant pressure and mixture concentration conditions, measure whole-field temperature distributions. The objective of the current work was to design a schlieren system to measure line-of-sight (LOS)-averaged temperature distribution with the final aim to determine the temperature distribution inside the cylinder of internal combustion (IC) engines. In a preliminary step, we assess theoretically the errors arising from the data reduction used to determine temperature from a schlieren measurement and find that the total error, random and systematic, is less than 3% for typical conditions encountered in the present experiments. A Z-type, curved-mirror schlieren system was used to measure the temperature distribution from a hot air jet in an open air environment in order to evaluate the method. Using the Abel transform, the radial distribution of the temperature was reconstructed from the LOS measurements. There was good agreement in the peak temperature between the reconstructed schlieren and thermocouple measurements. Experiments were then conducted in a four-stroke, single-cylinder, optical spark ignition engine with a four-valve, pentroof-type cylinder head to measure the temperature distribution of the reaction zone of an iso-octane-air mixture. The engine optical windows were designed to produce parallel rays and allow accurate application of the technique. The feasibility of the method to measure temperature distributions in IC engines was evaluated with simulations of the deflection angle combined with equilibrium chemistry calculations that estimated the temperature of the reaction zone at the position of maximum ray deflection as recorded in a schlieren image. Further simulations showed that the effects of exhaust gas recirculation and air-to-fuel ratio on the schlieren images were minimal under engine conditions compared to the temperature effect. At 20 crank angle degrees before top dead center (i.e., 20 crank angle degrees after ignition timing), the measured temperature of the flame front was in agreement with the simulations (730-1320 K depending on the shape of the flame front). Furthermore, the schlieren images identified the presence of hot gases ahead of the reaction zone due to diffusion and showed that there were no hot spots in the unburned mixture.
ABSTRACT
Hydrogen abstraction reactions by the methyl radical from n-butanol have been investigated at the ROCBS-QB3 level of theory. Reaction energies and product geometries for the most stable conformer of n-butanol (ROH) have been computed, the reaction energies order α < γ < ß < δ < OH. The preference for n-butane to favour H-abstraction at C(ß) and C(γ) while, in contrast, n-butanol favours radical reactions at the C(α) carbon is rationalised. Transition state (TS) barriers and geometries for the most stable conformer of n-butanol are presented, and discussed with respect to the Hammond postulate. The reaction barriers order as α < OH < γ < ß < δ. This relative ordering is not consistent with product radical stability, C-H bond dissociation energies or previous studies using O[combining dot above]H and HO[combining dot above](2) radicals. We provide a molecular orbital based rationalisation for this ordering and answer two related questions: Why is the γ-channel more stable than the ß-channel? Why do the two C(γ)-H H-abstraction TS differ in energy? The method and basis set dependence of the TS barriers is investigated. The Boltzmann probability distribution for the n-butanol conformers suggests that low energy conformers are present in approximately equal proportions to the most stable conformer at combustion temperatures where CH(3) radicals are present. Thus, the relative significance of the various H-abstraction channels has been assessed for a selection of higher energy conformers (ROH'). Key results include finding that higher energy n-butanol conformers (E(ROH') > E(ROH)) can generate lower energy product radicals, E(ROH') < E(ROH). Moreover, higher energy conformers can also have a globally competitive TS energy for H-abstraction.
