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An integrated numerical-experimental research activity has been carried out, in order to investigate the reliability of a modified, parallel version of KIVA3V, coupled with detailed kinetics, as an additional tool for the analysis of experimental results. In the proposed approach, fixed chemical species included in the reaction mechanism are used as markers for selection of the numerical methods to be used, aiming at exploiting, in every phase of the calculation, the most suitable solver. For validation purposes, pure n-Heptane was chosen as representative fuel model, both in experiments and computations. Calculated values are compared with experimental data collected on a single-cylinder diesel engine fuelled with pure n-heptane, in order to allow the direct use of a reaction mechanism for a single-component fuel.

The present paper describes a detailed experimental analysis on the effect of the compression ratio on the performance of a single-cylinder research diesel engine operating with both conventional combustion and Low Temperature Combustion mode for low NOx emissions. The single-cylinder engine was developed with the same combustion system architecture of the four-cylinder FIAT 1.9 liter Multi-Jet. Starting from an engine configuration with a compression ratio of 16.5, the compression ratio was reduced to 14.5. For both the geometric configurations, engine performance was evaluated in terms of thermodynamic parameters, emissions and fuel consumption in some operating test points representative of the engine behavior running on the NEDC cycle.