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Combustion and emissions of RP-3 jet fuel and diesel fuel in a single-cylinder diesel engine

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Abstract

The combustion characteristics and emission behaviors of RP-3 jet fuel were studied and compared to commercial diesel fuel in a single-cylinder compression ignition (CI) engine. Engine operational parameters, including engine load (0.6, 0.7, and 0.8 MPa indicating the mean effective pressure (IMEP)), the exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) rate (0%, 10%, 20%, and 30%), and the fuel injection timing ( - 20, - 15, - 10, and - 5° crank angle (CA) after top dead center (ATDC)) were adjusted to evaluate the engine performances of RP-3 jet fuel under changed operation conditions. In comparison to diesel fuel, RP-3 jet fuel shows a retarded heat release and lagged combustion phase, which is more obvious under heavy EGR rate conditions. In addition, the higher premixed combustion fraction of RP-3 jet fuel leads to a higher firststage heat release peak than diesel fuel under all testing conditions. As a result, RP-3 jet fuel features a longer ignition delay (ID) time, a shorter combustion duration (CD), and an earlier CA50 than diesel fuel. The experimental results manifest that RP-3 jet fuel has a slightly lower indicated thermal efficiency (ITE) compared to diesel fuel, but the ITE difference becomes less noticeable under large EGR rate conditions. Compared with diesel fuel, the nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions of RP-3 jet fuel are higher while its soot emissions are lower. The NOx emissions of RP-3 can be effectively reduced with the increased EGR rate and delayed injection timing.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 52022058, 51776124, and 51861135303) and the Ministry of Education of China (Grant No. 6141A020335).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory for Power Machinery and Engineering of the Ministry of Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Tongbin Zhao, Zhe Ren, Kai Yang, Tao Sun, Lei Shi, Zhen Huang & Dong Han

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  1. Tongbin Zhao
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  2. Zhe Ren
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  3. Kai Yang
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  4. Tao Sun
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  5. Lei Shi
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  7. Dong Han
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Correspondence to Lei Shi or Dong Han.

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Zhao, T., Ren, Z., Yang, K. et al. Combustion and emissions of RP-3 jet fuel and diesel fuel in a single-cylinder diesel engine. Front. Energy 17, 664–677 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11708-021-0787-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11708-021-0787-3

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