Abstract
In the present study a skeletal chemical reaction mechanism for biodiesel surrogate fuel was developed and validated for multi-dimensional engine combustion simulations. The reduced mechanism was generated from an existing detailed methyl butanoate oxidation mechanism containing 264 species and 1219 reactions. The reduction process included flux analysis, ignition sensitivity analysis, and optimization of reaction rate constants under constant volume conditions. The current reduced mechanism consists of 41 species and 150 reactions and gives predictions in excellent agreement with those of the comprehensive mechanism. In order to validate the mechanism under biodiesel-fueled engine conditions, it was combined with another skeletal mechanism for n-heptane oxidation. This combined reaction mechanism, ERC-Bio, contains 53 species and 156 reactions, which can be used for diesel/biodiesel blend engine simulations. Biodiesel-fueled engine operation was successfully simulated using the ERC-Bio mechanism.
