A Single Stroke Cylinder Rapid Compression Machine for Chemical Kinetic Study at Elevated Pressure and Temperatures

The fabrication of a rapid compression machine (RCM) is in its early phase of design. The machine is designed to enhance the study of ignition delay and validation of detailed kinetics models of fuels. The machine compresses fuel/air mixtures isentropically within 25 to 52 ms with a varying stroke. The combustion chamber design is not fixed and can be adjusted through the threaded shaft lock and within chamber slots. The originality of the facility is the inclusion of a pneumatic piston release mechanism (PPRM), which is pneumatically operated. The current test facility has been characterised by conducting a nonreactive and reactive experiment, the result showed that an obtainable compressed pressure of 21 bar and end gas temperature of approximately 1000 K was achievable within the present facility. The fidelity of the facility was performed with a non-reactive experiment, which experimental pressure profile was seen to follow each other closely showing that the data are highly repeatable within the test condition, the result was free from any form of rebound or disturbance, which would have adversely distort the result. The experiment data was simulated implementing the effective volume approach and was seen to perfectly match with the experiment at both stages of compression. The reactive experiment was demonstrated with heptane/air mixture at stoichiometric condition, T_C = 625 689 K. The results show that the experimental pressure traces overlay each other thus signifying a repeatable pressure trace and this demonstrates that the Shef-RCM is operable and ready at its first stage of design for studying the ignition delay time of liquid fuels operating within an engine like conditions and for validating chemical kinetics models.