Predicting Biodiesel Ignition Delay Using a Skeletal Multistep Chemical Reaction Scheme

From an environmental standpoint, biodiesel fuels have been under consideration for use in compression ignition engines as a viable alternative to fossil diesel. Though there are several simple to detailed kinetics investigations concerning fossil diesel, the studies on biodiesel ignition kinetics are scarce. Among engine modelers, the Shell ignition model is a widely accepted multistep reaction scheme for predicting diesel ignition. This work optimizes the multistep reaction shell model for predicting ignition delay for major ester constituents of biodiesel fuel, namely, methyl palmitate, methyl stearate, methyl oleate, methyl linoleate, and methyl linolenate. The model and its optimized parameters obtained using a genetic algorithm are useful in predicting the ignition delay of biodiesel from its composition details. The values of ignition delay of biodiesel constituents predicted from the optimized model over the range of equivalence ratios and pressures compare well with those obtained from a detailed...