Numerical Analysis of Auto-ignition of Ethanol

Vaibhav Kumar Sahu1, Shrikrishna Deshpande1, Vasudevan Raghavan1,*

1Department of Mechanical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600036, INDIA.

Received 28 June 2011; accepted 5 August 2011, available online 24 August 2011

1. Introduction
Ethanol is the most effective bio-fuel. Its easier production from agricultural feed-stocks, sugar cane and Fischer-Tropsch method makes it dominant among other bio-derived fuels. It can be employed directly for engine application, both from the point of view of developing renewable fuels for energy needs in future and to address the environmental issues such as exhaust emissions and global warming. For these relatively new bio-fuels, fundamental studies in terms of burning characteristics are done in several configurations [1]. The conditions at which bio-fuel auto-ignites should be understood thoroughly to reveal the combustion performance with better efficiency. Numerical simulation including global single-step chemistry in oxidative environment is useful where the study in detailed chemistry is expensive. The chemical kinetics of gas phase oxidation of ethanol has been reported over last five decades. Data have been reported from nonflow reactors, flow reactors, diffusion flames, and laminar premixed flames experiments by several researchers [2-5]. Detailed chemical kinetics models to describe the gas-phase oxidation of ethanol in air are available in literature [6]. Apart from that a global single step mechanism for ethanol oxidation is also available [7]. Experimental studies have been reported on extinction and autoignition of methanol and ethanol flames in laminar, non uniform flows for both non premixed and premixed flames in counter-flow configuratio...

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