Simulation of engine combustion with ethanol as a renewable fuel

Ethanol as a fuel is an important bio-fuel for future energy needs. In this work the combustion process of gasoline-ethanol blends in spark ignition engines was investigated using computational fluid dynamics and turbulent combustion modeling. A modified flame surface density approach developed for gasoline engine combustion was adapted to calculate fuel-burning rate of the blend. The rise in in-cylinder peak pressure and temperature for blends up to E20 was found relatively small compared to E00. A significant reduction of CO and an increment of NOx were observed for optimized combustion with adjusted ignition timing.