TY - GEN A1 - Netzer, Corinna A1 - Seidel, Lars A1 - Ravet, Frédéric A1 - Mauß, Fabian T1 - Impact of the surrogate formulation on 3D CFD engine knock prediction using detailed chemistry T2 - Fuel N2 - For engine knock prediction, surrogate fuels are often composed of iso-octane and n-heptane since they are the components of the Primary Reference Fuel (PRF). By definition, a PRF has no octane sensitivity (S = RON-MON). However, for a commercial gasoline fuel holds RON > MON and therefor S > 0. More complex surrogates are Toluene Reference Fuels (TRF) and Ethanol containing Toluene Reference Fuels (ETRF). In this work, the impact of the surrogate formulation on the prediction of flame propagation and auto-ignition in the unburnt gases are investigated. The surrogates are composed such that the Research Octane Number is the same. The auto-ignition events ahead of the flame front are predicted using 3D CFD and a combustion model based on the ETRF mechanism by Seidel (2017). The strength of the auto-ignition is determined using the detonation diagram by Bradley and co-workers (2002, 2003). Applying the different surrogates, ignition kernels of different size and reactivity are predicted. The results indicate a dependency on the local temperature history and the low temperature chemistry of the fuel species. The comparison of homogenous constant volume reactor and transient simulations show that the analysis of ignition delay time and octane rating solely from homogenous simulations is not sufficient if the knock tendency of a surrogate in engine simulations needs to be characterized. Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2019.115678 SN - 1873-7153 VL - Volume 254 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Netzer, Corinna A1 - Seidel, Lars A1 - Ravet, Frédéric A1 - Mauß, Fabian T1 - Assessment of the validity of RANS knock prediction using the resonance theory T2 - International Journal of Engine Research N2 - Following the resonance theory by Bradley and co-workers, engine knock is a consequence of an auto-ignition in the developing detonation regime. Their detonation diagram was developed using direct numerical simulations and was applied in the literature to engine knock assessment using large eddy simulations. In this work, it is analyzed if the detonation diagram can be applied for post-processing and evaluation of predicted auto-ignitions in Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes simulations even though the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes approach cannot resolve the fine structures resolved in direct numerical simulations and large eddy simulations that lead to the prediction of a developing detonation. For this purpose, an engine operating point at the knock limit spark advance is simulated using Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes and large eddy simulations. The combustion is predicted using the G-equation and the well-stirred reactor model in the unburnt gases based on a detailed gasoline surrogate reaction scheme. All the predicted ignition kernels are evaluated using the resonance theory in a post-processing step. According to the different turbulence models, the predicted pressure rise rates and gradients differ. However, the predicted ignition kernel sizes and imposed gas velocities by the auto-ignition event are similar, which suggests that the auto-ignitions predicted by Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes simulations can be given a meaningful interpretation within the detonation diagram. Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/1468087419846032 SN - 2041-3149 SN - 1468-0874 VL - 21 IS - 4 SP - 610 EP - 621 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Netzer, Corinna A1 - Pasternak, Michal A1 - Seidel, Lars A1 - Ravet, Frédéric A1 - Mauß, Fabian T1 - Computationally efficient prediction of cycle-to-cycle variations in spark-ignition engines T2 - International Journal of Engine Research N2 - Cycle-to-cycle variations are important to consider in the development of spark-ignition engines to further increase fuel conversion efficiency. Direct numerical simulation and large eddy simulation can predict the stochastics of flows and therefore cycle-to-cycle variations. However, the computational costs are too high for engineering purposes if detailed chemistry is applied. Detailed chemistry can predict the fuels’ tendency to auto-ignite for different octane ratings as well as locally changing thermodynamic and chemical conditions which is a prerequisite for the analysis of knocking combustion. In this work, the joint use of unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes simulations for the analysis of the average engine cycle and the spark-ignition stochastic reactor model for the analysis of cycle-to-cycle variations is proposed. Thanks to the stochastic approach for the modeling of mixing and heat transfer, the spark-ignition stochastic reactor model can mimic the randomness of turbulent flows that is missing in the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes modeling framework. The capability to predict cycle-to-cycle variations by the spark-ignition stochastic reactor model is extended by imposing two probability density functions. The probability density function for the scalar mixing time constant introduces a variation in the turbulent mixing time that is extracted from the unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes simulations and leads to variations in the overall mixing process. The probability density function for the inflammation time accounts for the delay or advancement of the early flame development. The combination of unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes and spark-ignition stochastic reactor model enables one to predict cycle-to-cycle variations using detailed chemistry in a fraction of computational time needed for a single large eddy simulation cycle. Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/1468087419856493 SN - 2041-3149 SN - 1468-0874 VL - 21 IS - 4 SP - 649 EP - 663 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Franken, Tim A1 - Netzer, Corinna A1 - Mauß, Fabian A1 - Pasternak, Michal A1 - Seidel, Lars A1 - Borg, Anders A1 - Lehtiniemi, Harry A1 - Matrisciano, Andrea A1 - Kulzer, André Casal T1 - Multi-objective optimization of water injection in spark-ignition engines using the stochastic reactor model with tabulated chemistry T2 - International Journal of Engine Research N2 - Water injection is investigated for turbocharged spark-ignition engines to reduce knock probability and enable higher engine efficiency. The novel approach of this work is the development of a simulation-based optimization process combining the advantages of detailed chemistry, the stochastic reactor model and genetic optimization to assess water injection. The fast running quasi-dimensional stochastic reactor model with tabulated chemistry accounts for water effects on laminar flame speed and combustion chemistry. The stochastic reactor model is coupled with the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm to find an optimum set of operating conditions for high engine efficiency. Subsequently, the feasibility of the simulation-based optimization process is tested for a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamic numerical test case. The newly proposed optimization method predicts a trade-off between fuel efficiency and low knock probability, which highlights the present target conflict for spark-ignition engine development. Overall, the optimization shows that water injection is beneficial to decrease fuel consumption and knock probability at the same time. The application of the fast running quasi-dimensional stochastic reactor model allows to run large optimization problems with low computational costs. The incorporation with the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm shows a well performing multi-objective optimization and an optimized set of engine operating parameters with water injection and high compression ratio is found. KW - Water Injection KW - Genetic Optimization KW - Spark Ignition Engine KW - Stochastic Reactor Model KW - Detailed Chemistry Y1 - 2019 UR - https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1468087419857602 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/1468087419857602 SN - 2041-3149 VL - 20 IS - 10 SP - 1089 EP - 1100 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Shrestha, Krishna Prasad A1 - Vin, Nicolas A1 - Herbinet, Olivier A1 - Seidel, Lars A1 - Battin-Leclerc, Frédérique A1 - Zeuch, Thomas A1 - Mauß, Fabian T1 - Insights into nitromethane combustion from detailed kinetic modeling – Pyrolysis experiments in jet-stirred and flow reactors T2 - Fuel N2 - The pyrolysis of nitromethane highly diluted in helium was studied in a plug flow reactor and in a jet-stirred reactor at 1.07 bar and over the temperature range from 500 to 1100 K. Mole fraction profiles of major products and of intermediates were identified with gas chromatography and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Using these experimental data, as well as published ones, we have developed a newly compiled model for the prediction of the pyrolysis and of the oxidation of nitromethane in jet-stirred and flow reactors, freely propagating, and burner-stabilized premixed flames, as well as in shock-tubes. The experimental results from the present work and from the literature are interpreted with the help of the kinetic model derived here. This study mainly focuses on the analysis of speciation in different reactors. Among the nitrogenous species, NO is found to be a major product for pyrolysis and oxidation. The model suggests that for nitromethane pyrolysis and oxidation the thermal dissociation channel to CH3 and NO2 is the main reaction path for the nitromethane degradation followed by the H-atom abstraction channel. The most sensitive reactions for nitromethane pyrolysis in a flow reactor and during pyrolysis and oxidation in a jet-stirred reactor are found to be CH3NO2(+M) ⇋ CH3 + NO2(+M) and CH3 + NO2 ⇋ CH3O + NO. The reaction CH3 + NO2 ⇋ CH3O + NO is found to be the most important reaction for all conditions studied. In a burner-stabilized premixed flame, as the mixture gets richer, the thermal dissociation channel CH3NO2(+M) ⇋ CH3 + NO2(+M) becomes more important as the contribution of the H-atom abstraction channel is decreased. Furthermore, in the burner-stabilized premixed flames, it was found that NO is mainly formed via NO2: NO2 + H ⇋ NO + OH, NO2 + CH3 ⇋ CH3O + NO. The model provided an overall reasonable agreement with the experimental data. However, for pyrolysis conditions, future work is desirable to improve predictions of intermediate species. This work extends the kinetic database and helps to improve the understanding of nitromethane chemistry. The kinetic model presented in this work can serve as a base model for hydrocarbons and oxygenated fuels higher than C2 and nitrogen-containing compounds higher than C1 as well as for pure nitrogen compounds. Y1 - 2020 UR - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001623611931703X#! U6 - https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2019.116349 SN - 0016-2361 VL - 261 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Van Treek, Lisa A1 - Lubrano Lavadera, Marco A1 - Konnov, Alexander A. A1 - Seidel, Lars A1 - Mauß, Fabian T1 - Measurements of the laminar burning velocities of ethanol-water-air flames N2 - The laminar burning velocity of ethanol-water-air flames at atmospheric pressure and initial gas temperatures of T = 358 K was measured with the heat flux method. The mixture of ethanol-water-air contained 0%, 10%, 20%, 30% and 40% water by mole and the equivalence ratio (ϕ) range was varied from 0.7 to 1.4. The experiments were compared against predictions using three different kinetic models. Y1 - 2019 UR - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330635016_Measurements_of_the_laminar_burning_velocities_of_ethanol-water-air_flames N1 - 1st International Conference on Smart Energy Carriers ER - TY - GEN A1 - Shrestha, Krishna Prasad A1 - Seidel, Lars A1 - Zeuch, Thomas A1 - Mauß, Fabian T1 - Modeling for Nitromethane oxidation T2 - 1st International Conference on Smart Energy Carriers Napoli, 2019 N2 - The diminishing availability of conventional fuels and stricter regulations on pollution control and CO2 emission targets have led scientist and engineers to look for alternative fuels. Recently nitromethane has slowly gained interest as alternative fuel over conventional fuel for internal combustion engines. In the past, it was mostly used as rocket propellant or as an explosives [1,2]. Nitromethane is an energetic compound with a wide variety of applications, including its use as a monopropellant, a liquid explosive, a solvent for chemical processing and analysis, and a highperformance fuel additive for internal combustion engines and pulsed detonation engines [3]. The chemical formula of nitromethane is CH3NO2. As the name suggests, the molecule is essentially methane with one of the four hydrogens replaced by a nitro group. In essence, it is the simplest of possible energetic CHON molecules that contain nitro groups, which is why it is often used in reaction studies as a prototype for more complex energetic materials. There is no reliable kinetic model for nitromethane combustion, which is validated over a wide range of experimental conditions. There are a few published studies [4–8] both numerically and experimentally focusing often on a single reactor at very specific conditions. The aim of the present work is to extend our recently published mechanism [9] for syngas, methane and ammonia oxidation to include CH3NO2 as fuel and validate against the available experimental data from the literature. The development and compilation strategy for our mechanism is described in our recent work [9] and this study is conducted in a similar manner. Rates are taken mainly from [7,10–16]. This makes the kinetic model more robust and reliable for combustion modelling. Y1 - 2019 UR - http://logesoft.com/loge-16/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Abstract_1stICSEC_SMARTCATs_Napoli_Shrestha-et-al_2018-11-28.pdf ER - TY - GEN A1 - Shrestha, Krishna Prasad A1 - Seidel, Lars A1 - Mauß, Fabian A1 - Zeuch, Thomas T1 - Kinetic Modeling for NOx prediction with improved base Chemistry T2 - COST 1404, SMARTCATs, Chemistry of smart energy carriers and technologies, 3rd General Meeting and Workshop on SECs in Industry of SMARTCATs Action KW - COST 1404, SMARTCATs, Chemistry of smart energy carriers and technologies, 3rd General Meeting and Workshop on SECs in Industry of SMARTCATs Action Y1 - 2017 UR - http://www.smartcats.eu/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/AM3_02_01.pdf ER - TY - GEN A1 - León, Larisa A1 - Ruwe, Lena A1 - Moshammer, Kai A1 - Seidel, Lars A1 - Shrestha, Krishna Prasad A1 - Wang, Xiaoxiao A1 - Mauß, Fabian A1 - Kohse-Höinghaus, Katharina A1 - Hansen, Nils T1 - Chemical insights into the larger sooting tendency of 2-methyl-2-butene compared to n-pentane T2 - Combustion and Flame N2 - A comprehensive, chemically detailed mechanism for the combustion of 2-methyl-2-butene and n-pentane is presented to provide insights into the different sooting tendencies of these two structurally different C5 hydrocarbons. A hierarchically assembled mechanism has been developed to specifically target speciation data from low-pressure premixed flames of 2-methyl-2-butene [Ruwe et al., Combust. Flame, 175, 34-46, 2017] and newly measured mole fraction data for a fuel-rich (ɸ=1.8) n-pentane flame, in which species profiles up to phenol were quantified. The partially isomer-resolved chemical composition of this flame was determined using flame-sampling molecular-beam mass spectrometry with single-photon ionization by tunable, synchrotron-generated vacuum-ultraviolet radiation. The presented model, which includes a newly determined, consistent set of the thermochemistry data for the C5 species, presents overall satisfactory capabilities to predict the mole fraction profiles of common combustion intermediates. The analysis of the model predictions revealed the fuel-structure dependencies (i.e. saturated vs. unsaturated and linear vs. branched) of the formation of small aromatic species that are considered as soot precursors. The propensity of the 2-methyl-2-butene flame to form larger concentrations of aromatic species was traced back to the readily available formation routes of several small precursor molecules and the efficient formation of “first aromatic rings” beyond benzene. KW - 2-Methyl-2-butene KW - n-Pentane KW - Laminar premixed flames KW - Molecular-beam mass spectrometry KW - Kinetic modeling KW - PAH formation Y1 - 2019 UR - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0010218019302883#! U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.combustflame.2019.06.029 SN - 0010-2180 VL - 208 SP - 182 EP - 197 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Shrestha, Krishna Prasad A1 - Eckart, Sven A1 - Elbaz, Ayman M. A1 - Giri, Binod Raj A1 - Fritsche, Chris A1 - Seidel, Lars A1 - Roberts, William L. A1 - Krause, Hartmut A1 - Mauß, Fabian T1 - A comprehensive kinetic model for dimethyl ether and dimethoxymethane oxidation and NOx interaction utilizing experimental laminar flame speed measurements at elevated pressure and temperature T2 - Combustion and Flame N2 - Laminar flame speeds of dimethyl ether and dimethoxymethane at pressures from 1 to 5 bar and initial temperatures from 298 to 373 K were determined experimentally using a constant volume spherical vessel and a heat flux burner setup. This study is the first to report dimethoxymethane laminar flame speeds at a pressure higher than 1 bar. Using these experimental data along with data available in the literature, a new kinetic model for the prediction of the oxidation behavior of dimethyl ether and dimethoxymethane in freely propagating and burner stabilized premixed flames, in shock tubes, rapid compression machines, flow reactors, and a jet-stirred reactor has been developed. The experimental results from the present work and literature are interpreted with the help of the derived kinetic model. This newly developed reaction mechanism considers the redox chemistry of NOx to accommodate the influence of the oxygen level on the onset of fuel conversion and interconversion of NO and NO2. The current model suggests that an increased O2 level promotes the HO2 production, which in turn leads to the formation of OH radicals, which promotes the combustion of the fuel/air mixture under lean conditions. The increase of OH radical concentrations is mainly via the NO/NO2 interconversion reaction channel, NO+HO2=NO2+OH, NO2+H=NO+OH, CH3OCH3+NO2=CH3OCH2+HONO, followed by the thermal decomposition of HONO. This work extends the kinetic database and helps to improve the understanding of dimethyl ether and dimethoxymethane combustion behavior. The kinetic model presented in this work can serve as a base model for hydrocarbons and oxygenated fuels higher than C2. KW - Dimethyl ether KW - Dimethoxymethane KW - Laminar flame speed KW - Kinetic modeling KW - NOx Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.combustflame.2020.04.016 SN - 1556-2921 VL - 218 SP - 57 EP - 74 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Franken, Tim A1 - Seidel, Lars A1 - Matrisciano, Andrea A1 - Mauß, Fabian A1 - Kulzer, Andre Casal A1 - Schuerg, Frank T1 - Analysis of the Water Addition Efficiency on Knock Suppression for Different Octane Ratings T2 - SAE World Congress N2 - Water injection can be applied to spark ignited gasoline engines to increase the Knock Limit Spark Advance and improve the thermal efficiency. The Knock Limit Spark Advance potential of 6 °CA to 11 °CA is shown by many research groups for EN228 gasoline fuel using experimental and simulation methods. The influence of water is multi-layered since it reduces the in-cylinder temperature by vaporization and higher heat capacity of the fresh gas, it changes the chemical equilibrium in the end gas and increases the ignition delay and decreases the laminar flame speed. The aim of this work is to extend the analysis of water addition to different octane ratings. The simulation method used for the analysis consists of a detailed reaction scheme for gasoline fuels, the Quasi-Dimensional Stochastic Reactor Model and the Detonation Diagram. The detailed reaction scheme is used to create the dual fuel laminar flame speed and combustion chemistry look-up tables. The Detonation Diagram is used as a novel approach in the Quasi-Dimensional Stochastic Reactor Model to evaluate the auto-ignition characteristic in the end gas and determine if it is a harmless deflagration or developing detonation. First, the Quasi-Dimensional Stochastic Reactor Model is trained for three engine operating points and a RON95 E10 fuel. Its performance is evaluated based on experimental results of a single cylinder research engine. Subsequently, different spark timings and water-fuel ratios are investigated for different Primary Reference Fuels. The results outline that water addition can effectively reduce the strength of auto-ignition in the end gas for different Primary Reference Fuels. Thereby, it can be stated that the reduction of the auto-ignition strength through water addition by 50 – 80 % water-fuel ratio for high octane number fuels corresponds to the spark timing delay of 6 °CA or an increase of research octane number by 10 points. KW - Gasoline KW - Knock KW - Water KW - Engines KW - Combustion KW - Simulation Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.4271/2020-01-0551 SN - 2688-3627 SN - 0148-7191 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Franken, Tim A1 - Mauß, Fabian A1 - Seidel, Lars A1 - Gern, Maike Sophie A1 - Kauf, Malte A1 - Matrisciano, Andrea A1 - Kulzer, Andre Casal T1 - Gasoline engine performance simulation of water injection and low-pressure exhaust gas recirculation using tabulated chemistry T2 - International Journal of Engine Research N2 - This work presents the assessment of direct water injection in spark-ignition engines using single cylinder experiments and tabulated chemistry-based simulations. In addition, direct water injection is compared with cooled low-pressure exhaust gas recirculation at full load operation. The analysis of the two knock suppressing and exhaust gas cooling methods is performed using the quasi-dimensional stochastic reactor model with a novel dual fuel tabulated chemistry model. To evaluate the characteristics of the autoignition in the end gas, the detonation diagram developed by Bradley and coworkers is applied. The single cylinder experiments with direct water injection outline the decreasing carbon monoxide emissions with increasing water content, while the nitrogen oxide emissions indicate only a minor decrease. The simulation results show that the engine can be operated at l = 1 at full load using water–fuel ratios of up to 60% or cooled low-pressure exhaust gas recirculation rates of up to 30%. Both technologies enable the reduction of the knock probability and the decrease in the catalyst inlet temperature to protect the aftertreatment system components. The strongest exhaust temperature reduction is found with cooled low-pressure exhaust gas recirculation. With stoichiometric air–fuel ratio and water injection, the indicated efficiency is improved to 40% and the carbon monoxide emissions are reduced. The nitrogen oxide concentrations are increased compared to the fuel-rich base operating conditions and the nitrogen oxide emissions decrease with higher water content. With stoichiometric air–fuel ratio and exhaust gas recirculation, the indicated efficiency is improved to 43% and the carbon monoxide emissions are decreased. Increasing the exhaust gas recirculation rate to 30% drops the nitrogen oxide emissions below the concentrations of the fuel-rich base operating conditions. KW - Water Injection KW - Exhaust Gas Recirculation KW - Efficiency KW - Spark Ignition Engine KW - Stochastic Reactor Model KW - Emissions Y1 - 2020 UR - https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1468087420933124 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/1468087420933124 SN - 2041-3149 SN - 1468-0874 VL - 21 IS - 10 SP - 1857 EP - 1877 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Shrestha, Krishna Prasad A1 - Lhuillier, Charles A1 - Barbosa, Amanda Alves A1 - Brequigny, Pierre A1 - Contino, Francesco A1 - Mounaïm-Rousselle, Christine A1 - Seidel, Lars A1 - Mauß, Fabian T1 - An experimental and modeling study of ammonia with enriched oxygen content and ammonia/hydrogen laminar flame speed at elevated pressure and temperature T2 - Proceedings of the Combustion Institute N2 - Laminar flame speeds of ammonia with oxygen-enriched air (oxygen content varying from 21 to 30 vol.%) and ammonia-hydrogen-air mixtures (fuel hydrogen content varying from 0 to 30 vol.%) at elevated pressure (1–10 bar) and temperature (298–473 K) were determined experimentally using a constant volume combustion chamber. Moreover, ammonia laminar flame speeds with helium as an inert were measured for the first time. Using these experimental data along with published ones, we have developed a newly compiled kinetic model for the prediction of the oxidation of ammonia and ammonia-hydrogen blends in freely propagating and burner stabilized premixed flames, as well as in shock tubes, rapid compression machines and a jet-stirred reactor. The reaction mechanism also considers the formation of nitrogen oxides, as well as the reduction of nitrogen oxides depending on the conditions of the surrounding gas phase. The experimental results from the present work and the literature are interpreted with the help of the kinetic model derived here. The experiments show that increasing the initial temperature, fuel hydrogen content, or oxidizer oxygen content causes the laminar flame speed to increase, while it decreases when increasing the initial pressure. The proposed kinetic model predicts the same trends than experiments and a good agreement is found with measurements for a wide range of conditions. The model suggests that under rich conditions the N2H2 formation path is favored compared to stoichiometric condition. The most important reactions under rich conditions are: NH2+NH=N2H2+H, NH2+NH2=N2H2+H2, N2H2+H=NNH+H2 and N2H2+M=NNH+H+M. These reactions were also found to be among the most sensitive reactions for predicting the laminar flame speed for all the cases investigated. KW - Ammonia KW - Laminar flame speed KW - Kinetic modeling KW - Ammonia-hydrogen KW - NOx Y1 - 2020 UR - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1540748920302881#! U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proci.2020.06.197 SN - 1540-7489 VL - 2020 SP - 1 EP - 12 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Issayev, Gani A1 - Giri, Binod Raj A1 - Elbaz, Ayman M. A1 - Shrestha, Krishna Prasad A1 - Mauß, Fabian A1 - Roberts, William L. A1 - Farooq, Aamir T1 - Combustion behavior of ammonia blended with diethyl ether T2 - Proceedings of the Combustion Institute N2 - Ammonia (NH3) is recognized as a carbon-free hydrogen-carrier fuel with a high content of hydrogen atoms per unit volume. Recently, ammonia has received increasing attention as a promising alternative fuel for internal combustion engine and gas turbine applications. However, the viability of ammonia fueling future combustion devices has several barriers to overcome. To overcome the challenge of its low reactivity, it is proposed to blend it with a high-reactivity fuel. In this work, we have investigated the combustion characteristics of ammonia/diethyl ether (NH3/DEE) blends using a rapid compression machine (RCM) and a constant volume spherical reactor (CVSR). Ignition delay times (IDTs) of NH3/DEE blends were measured using the RCM over a temperature range of 620 to 942 K, pressures near 20 and 40 bar, equivalence ratios (Φ) of 1 and 0.5, and a range of mole fractions of DEE, χDEE, from 0.05 to 0.2 (DEE/NH3 = 5 – 20%). Laminar burning velocities of NH3/DEE premixed flames were measured using the CVSR at 298 K, 1 bar, Φ of 0.9 to 1.3, and χDEE from 0.1 to 0.4. Our results indicate that DEE promotes the reactivity of fuel blends resulting in significant shortening of the ignition delay times of ammonia under RCM conditions. IDTs expectedly exhibited strong dependence on pressure and equivalence ratio for a given blend. Laminar burning velocity was found to increase with increasing fraction of DEE. The burnt gas Markstein length increased with equivalence ratio for χDEE = 0.1 as seen in NH3-air flames, while the opposite evolution of Markstein length was observed with Φ for 0.1 < χDEE ≤ 0.4, as observed in isooctane-air flames. A detailed chemical kinetics model was assembled to analyze and understand the combustion characteristics of NH3/DEE blends. KW - Ammonia KW - Diethyl ether KW - Ignition delay times KW - Laminar flame speed Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proci.2020.06.337 SN - 1540-7489 VL - 38 (2021) IS - 1 SP - 499 EP - 506 ER -