Soot particle size modelling in 3D simulations of diesel engine combustion

The present work is focused on multi-dimensional simulations of combustion in diesel engines. The primary objective was to test, in a diesel engine framework, a soot particle size model to represent the carbon particle formation and calculate the corresponding size distribution function. Simulations are performed by means of a parallel version of the KIVA3V numerical code, modified to adopt detailed kinetics reaction mechanisms. A skeletal reaction scheme for n-heptane autoignition has been extended, to include PAH kinetics and carbonaceous particle formation and consumption rates: the full reaction set is made up of 82 gas species and 50 species accounting for the particles, thus the complete reaction scheme comprises 132 species and 2206 reaction steps. Four different engine operative conditions, varying engine speed and load, are taken into account and experimentally tested on a single cylinder diesel engine fuelling pure n-heptane. Computed particle size distribution functions are compared with corres...