Prediction of the developing detonation regime in a NTC-fuel/air mixture with temperature inhomogeneities under engine conditions

The developing detonation process resulting in superknock development under realistic engine conditions in the presence of low-temperature chemistry (LTC) is investigated using two-dimensional direct numerical simulations (DNS). A new model is proposed to predict the developing detonation regime under engine conditions. The prediction is validated against the DNS results. Dimethyl ether (DME) exhibiting a typical negative temperature coefficient (NTC) behavior is used as a fuel. In the presence of the NTC regime, the mean distance of dissipation elements of the ignition delay field, lDE, is considered as the characteristic length scale of hot spots to improve the predictive accuracy of the model. The model also accounts for the multi-dimensional effect resulting from the interaction and collision of multiple ignition kernels that is found to promote the onset of detonation and reduce the runup distance of detonation initiation as compared to that of 1D laminar detonation cases. The trasient mixture state is also incorporated in the model development. The model is demonstrated to accurately capture the developing detonation boundary that is consistent with the knock intensity level obtained from the statistical analysis of DNS dataset.