Experimental and numerical investigation of the promoting effect of a cetane booster in a low-octane gasoline fuel in a rapid compression machine: A study of 2-ethylhexyl nitrate

Modern societies require cleaner and more efficient internal combustion engines. Low-temperature combustion (LTC) has been proved to be a good step toward this goal. This study aims at investigating the promoting effect of a cetane booster additive named 2-ethylhexyl nitrate (EHN) on the reactivity of a low-octane gasoline at LTC-relevant conditions. Rapid compression machine experiments were conducted at 10 bar, from 675 to 960 K for stoichiometric mixtures. The neat fuel was a mixture of toluene and n-heptane whose research octane number is 84. The doping levels of the additive were set at 0.1 and 1% molar basis. At the experimental conditions, it is found that EHN provides a promoting effect on the surrogate reactivity over all the whole temperature range. This effect increases with EHN doping levels. The negative temperature coefficient (NTC) behavior of the surrogate fuel is mitigated by the presence of the additive. The EHN reactivity promoting effect is lowest around 710 K and then increases with temperature. Under some conditions, heat releases are observed during the compression process. The chemical reactivity of the fuel gas mixture during the piston movement has to be considered to get reliable simulations. Kinetic modeling works show a good agreement with experiments. The model of this study reproduces properly the EHN promoting effect over the whole range of investigated temperatures and doping levels. Numerical analyses were conducted. EHN can totally decompose during the compression process resulting in heat releases. EHN is less effective at low T-c (< 800 K) at lean condition than at stoichiometric condition. It is found that the EHN effect links to the OH radical formation and the NO2-NO loop. The reactions between NO and n-heptyl peroxy radicals are found to be the main reason for the EHN effect in NTC region of the surrogate fuel oxidation. (C) 2020 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.