Methanol has been considered as an alternative fuel for spark ignition engines to lower CO and hydrocarbon emissions. For operational reasons (ease of cold weather start, a luminous flame for safety reasons) the methanol fuel of choice is M85 (mixture of 85 percent methanol and 15 percent gasoline). The M85 fuel supply, however, is not likely to be sufficiently widespread, so that in practice flexible fuel vehicles (FFV) are designed to operate on a wide range of methanol/gasoline mixtures. The fundamental combustion characteristics of the mixture over the entire range of methanol/gasoline proportion are therefore of interest. The combustion behavior in a modern 4-valve engine using a broad range of methanol/gasoline fuel mixtures was studied. The initial flame development was examined by using a spark plug fiber optics probe. Approximately, the kernel expansion speed, Sg, is relatively unchanged from M0 to M40, jumps by 30 % from M40 to M60, and then remains roughly constant from M60 to M100. Statistics of the IMEP indicate that at a lean idle condition the combustion rate and robustness correlate with Sg: a higher value of Sg gives better combustion. Thus M60-M100 fuels give better idle combustion behavior than the M0-M40 fuels.
Flame kernel development in a methanol fueled engine
Entwicklung des Flammenkerns im methanolbetriebenen Ottomotor
SAE Technical Papers ; 1-8
1993
8 Seiten, 12 Bilder, 2 Tabellen, 5 Quellen
Aufsatz (Konferenz)
Englisch
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