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Measurements and Modeling Study on a High-Aromatic Diesel Fuel

Published

Author(s)

Bret Windom, Marcia L. Huber, Thomas J. Bruno, A L. Lown, C T. Lira

Abstract

The increasing cost of diesel fuel, potential for supply disruptions, and environmental concerns have resulted in a great deal of research to improve the performance and efficiency of diesel engines. This includes significant efforts in the reformulation of conventional diesel fuels and the development of renewable diesel fuels. An integral part of work on diesel fuels has been the measurement and modeling of the thermophysical properties of the fuels; this knowledge is critical to effective design and application. In this paper, we present the development of a model for thermodynamic and transport properties for a conventional diesel fuel, based on our measurements of chemical composition, density, viscosity and volatility. This information, along with the cetane number and the heat of combustion, was used to develop surrogate mixture models. The models contain constituent fluids representative of those found in the fuel and were designed to represent thermophysical properties (density, viscosity, and the volatility) and also the heat of combustion and the cetane number. Comparisons with limited density and viscosity experimental data with the values calculated with the surrogate models are within 0.5 % and 2 % respectively. The model represents the cetane number of the fuel to within 2 cetane numbers, and the heat of combustion to within 5 %. The volatility behavior, indicated by the temperatures obtained from the advanced distillation curve method, is reproduced to within 0.5 %.
Citation
Energy and Fuels
Volume
26

Keywords

diesel fuel, distillation curve, surrogate

Citation

Windom, B. , Huber, M. , Bruno, T. , Lown, A. and Lira, C. (2012), Measurements and Modeling Study on a High-Aromatic Diesel Fuel, Energy and Fuels, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=909948 (Accessed March 29, 2024)
Created January 30, 2012, Updated October 12, 2021