Abstract
An experimental study was carried out on a modified single-cylinder dual-fuel engine in reactivity-controlled compression ignition (RCCI) mode using pilot fuels with different physicochemical properties, and the effects of the pilot fuels and the two-stage injection strategy on the combustion and emission characteristics of the RCCI mode were explored. The results show that when coal-to-liquid (CTL) is used with a high cetane number as the pilot fuel, the reactivity stratification of the fuel-air mixture is more pronounced. With the advancement of pilot injection timing (SOI1), the heat release rate (HRR) of the CTL/gasoline mode gradually changes from a bimodal pattern to a unimodal pattern. Among them, the bimodal HRR includes CTL premixed combustion and gasoline flame propagation, as well as CTL diffused combustion and gasoline multipoint spontaneous combustion, while the unimodal HRR represents CTL premixed combustion and gasoline multipoint spontaneous combustion. However, the HRR of the fossil diesel/gasoline RCCI combustion mode always exhibits a unimodal form. With the advancement of the main injection timing (SOI2), the gravity center of heat release (CA50) is more advanced when using CTL as the pilot fuel due to the short ignition delay. Overall, compared to fossil diesel, using CTL as the pilot fuel is conducive to controlling the pressure rise rate, which expands the operating range of the RCCI combustion mode. Besides, for both pilot fuels of CTL and fossil diesel, the advancement of SOI1 lowers particle emissions, and the advancement of SOI2 reduces NOx emissions, while the two-stage injection achieves higher indicated thermal efficiency.