Shock tube investigation of propane-air mixtures with a pilot diesel fuel or cotton methyl ester

The propane (or LPG) is one of the best candidates as an alternative fuel in dual-fuel engines which operate primarily on any type of gaseous fuel using pilot injection of diesel to achieve ignition. The ignition delay has received considerable attention in the published literature for various gaseous fuels using different dual-fuel engines which showed that the ignition delay in a dual-fuel engine is different from that in a diesel engine especially at low loads. In this research, the measurement of ignition delay of propane-air mixtures with a pilot diesel fuel or cotton methyl ester (CME) similar to mixtures used in dual-fuel engines have been performed in a shock tube. The operating conditions were the equivalence ratio ranging from 0.3 to 1.2, the initial pressure varied from 0.4 to 1.0 bar, the initial temperature varied from 423 to 673 K, the relative mass of pilot liquid fuel and the type of liquid fuel. The ignition-delay times were measured using a piezo-electric pressure transducer, charge amplifier, data acquisition card, PC computer and LabVIEW program. From the results, it is shown that, the minimum ignition-delay time for the dual-fuel combustion was observed at stoichiometric equivalence ratio for propane-air mixtures with a pilot diesel fuel or CME. Higher initial temperatures and pressures reduced the ignition delay. Also, the ignition delays of propane-air mixtures are affected by changes in pilot fuel quantities and properties.