Multi-zone diesel fuel spray combustion model for the simulation of a diesel engine running on biofuel

A mathematical model for the calculation of the multi-zone diesel fuel spray combustion process in compression ignition engines is refined in order to expand its capability to describe the operation of diesel engines running on different bio-fuel blends. As an illustration of the capacity of the proposed model to accurately describe the working process numerical simulations of a Caterpillar diesel engine operating on diesel oil and different soybean methyl ester (SME) blends are presented in this paper. A comparison of these theoretical results with published experimental data for the SME 20 and 40 per cent blends shows good agreement. As the proposed model provides a fairly accurate prediction of the heat release rate during the combustion process and the levels of NOx and PM emission formations the model may be used for the optimisation of the engine's design and its working process parameters.