The autoignition resistance of a practical gasoline is best characterized by the Octane Index, OI, defined as RON-KS, where RON and MON are respectively, Research and Motor Octane Numbers, S is the sensitivity (RON-MON) and K is a constant depending on the pressure and temperature history of the fuel/air mixture in an engine. Experiments in knocking SI engines, HCCI engines and in premixed compression ignition (PCI) engines have shown that if two fuels of different composition have the same OI and experience the same pressure/temperature history, they will have the same autoignition phasing. A practical gasoline is a complex mixture of hydrocarbons and a simple surrogate is needed to describe its autoignition chemistry. A mixture of toluene and PRF (iso-octane + n-heptane), TPRF, can have the same RON and S as a target gasoline and so will have the same OI at any given K value and will be a very good surrogate for the gasoline.In this paper, a method to define the composition of a TPRF to match both RON and MON of a target gasoline is presented. The appropriate TPRF as a surrogate for a particular gasoline, which has been extensively tested in a knocking SI engine, is identified using this method. A chemical kinetic model is used to calculate ignition delays at different pressures and temperatures for this surrogate TPRF. From these data, a simple Arrhenius type equation with a pressure correction to predict ignition delays is identified. This equation is used to find the ignition delay as a function of crank angle and calculate the Livengood-Wu integral, I, for a number of individual knocking cycles covering a wide range of operating conditions using the gasoline in a single cylinder engine. Knock is predicted to occur at the crank angle when the integral, I, reaches unity. The crank angle at which knock is predicted to occur using the simple equation for ignition delay for the surrogate TPRF agrees very well with the experimentally observed value for the gasoline for all the cases considered. Finally, using the chemical kinetic model for TPRF, simple equations which can be used to estimate ignition delay are presented for a range of RON and sensitivity. Such equations can be used to predict when knock occurs during the cycle for these gasolines if the pressure and temperature development with crank angle is known.

Ignition delay times of four ternary blends of n-heptane/iso-octane/toluene, referred to as Toluene Primary Reference Fuels (TPRFs), have been measured in a high-pressure shock tube and in a rapid compression machine. The TPRFs were formulated to match the research octane number (RON) and motor octane number (MON) of two high-octane gasolines and two prospective low-octane naphtha fuels. The experiments were carried out over a wide range of temperatures (650–1250 K), at pressures of 10, 20 and 40 bar, and at equivalence ratios of 0.5 and 1.0. It was observed that the ignition delay times of these TPRFs exhibit negligible octane dependence at high temperatures (T > 1000 K), weak octane dependence at low temperatures (T < 700 K), and strong octane dependence in the negative temperature coefficient (NTC) regime. A detailed chemical kinetic model was used to simulate and interpret the measured data. It was shown that the kinetic model requires general improvements to better predict low-temperature conditions and particularly requires improvements for high sensitivity (high toluene concentration) TPRF blends. These datasets will serve as important benchmark for future gasoline surrogate mechanism development and validation. © 2016 The Combustion Institut

Ignition delay times of four different primary reference fuels (PRF), mixtures of n-heptane and iso-octane, were measured behind reflected shock waves in a high-pressure shock tube facility. The PRFs were formulated to match the RON of two high-octane gasolines (RON 95 and 91) and two prospective low-octane naphtha fuels (RON 80 and 70). Experiments were carried out over a wide range of temperatures (700–1200K), pressures (10, 20, and 40bar) and equivalence ratios (0.5 and 1). Kinetic modeling predictions from four chemical kinetic mechanisms are compared with the experimental data. Ignition delay correlations are developed to reproduce the measured ignition delay times. Brute force sensitivity analyses are carried out to identify reactions that affect ignition delay times at specific temperature, pressure and equivalence ratio. The large experimental data set provided in the current work will serve as a benchmark for the validation of chemical kinetic mechanisms of primary reference fuel blends