Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) plays a tremendous role in evaluating and visualizing the spray breakup, atomization and vaporization process. In this study, ANSYS Forte CFD tool was used to simulate the spray penetration length and spray morphology in a constant volume chamber at different grid size of a multi-hole injector. An unsteady gas jet model was coupled with Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) and Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) model for multi-hole spray simulation. The effect of CFD cell size and ambient gas pressure on spray penetration length and spray morphology of fuel vapor mass fraction were investigated for both KH-RT and KH-RT with the unsteady gas jet model. It is found that KH-RT with the unsteady gas jet model shows mesh independent spray penetration length and spray morphology of fuel vapor mass fraction as compared to KH-RT model. This can be explained by the Lagrangian-Eulerian coupling of axial droplet-gas relative velocity is modeled on the principle of unsteady gas jet theory instead of discretizing very fine grid to the computational domain. This reduces the requirement of fine mesh near the nozzle and allows larger time step during spray injection. It is also observed that at higher ambient gas pressure, an aerodynamic force between the droplet and gas intensifies which reduces the overall spray penetration length and fuel vapor mass. The distorted spray morphology of fuel vapor mass fraction was accurately predicted at high ambient gas pressure using the KH-RT with an unsteady gas jet model which results in mesh independent drag predictions. The use of advanced spray model results in the mesh size dependency reduction and accurate drag prediction with less computational time and faster accurate solutions over all conventional spray breakup models.

The distribution of lubricating oil droplets in cylinder is one of main causes of abnormal combustion of natural gas engines. The evaporation of lubricating oil droplet is one of the key sub-processes controlling its auto-ignition event. The components of lubricating oil with different carbon number (16–50) shows significantly different evaporation and ignition characteristics from gasoline and diesel fuels. Even though there are many evaporation models focusing on the evaporation behaviors of multi-component droplets, most of them are limited to the liquid fuels, which are composed by more volatile hydrocarbons. Therefore, understanding the evaporation characteristics of lubricating oil droplets is very important for investigating the mechanism of abnormal combustion of natural gas engines. In this study, a multi-component evaporation model for lubricating oil was developed, which considers several key characteristics in the droplet evaporation process, including the finite heat conduction and limited mass diffusion in liquid phase, multi-component diffusion in gas phase, real vapor-liquid equilibrium at the droplet interface, as well as the nitrogen quantity dissolved in liquid phase. The simulation results by this model were compared with experimental results, and good agreements have been achieved. Then, this model was used to study the evaporation behaviors of different hydrocarbon droplets, including lubricating oil droplet. The influences of ambient temperatures and pressures, as well as methane concentration on evaporation characteristics (namely the heat up period, average evaporation rate, and droplet lifetime) were investigated. The results show that both heat up period and evaporation rate of lubricating oil droplets increase as the methane concentration increases. Besides, the droplet lifetime monotonically decreases as the ambient pressure decreases. This is different from the diesel and gasoline droplets, for which the effects of pressure on the droplet evaporation behaviors are depended on the ambient temperature.

Large-eddy simulation (LES) of diesel spray and combustion was performed to study its improvement in the simulation of engine in-cylinder dynamics compared to the Reynolds-averaged simulation. For the LES, the dynamic structure approach was used to model the sub-grid turbulence and its interaction with the moving droplets in the spray. A multicomponent vaporization model (MCV) based on the continuous thermodynamics approach and a gamma distribution to describe the distribution of the numerous fuel components, was used to simulate the vaporization of diesel fuel droplets. The MCV model was imbedded into the LES framework in the KIVA-4 program. Using this LES model, a non-evaporative spray in a constant-volume chamber was first simulated. More realistic spray structures and improved agreements in the spray penetration with the experimental data were obtained by the LES compared to a Reynolds-averaged simulation of the same spray. A further simulation of an evaporative diesel spray and the subsequent combustion process using both LES and MCV models was also performed. Improved agreements with the experimental data in the spray structures and soot distributions were also observed using both models.

The generation of particulate matter (PM) is one problem with gasoline direct-injection engines. PM is generated in high-density regions of fuel that are formed by non-uniform air/fuel mixtures, coarse droplets generated during end-of-injection, and fuel adhering to the nozzle body surface and piston surface. Uniform air/fuel mixtures and short fuel-spray durations with multiple injections are effective in enabling the valves of fuel injectors to not wobble and dribble. We previously studied what effects the opening and closing of valves had on fuel spray behavior and found that valve motions in the opening and closing directions affected spray behavior and generated coarse droplets during the end-of-injection. We focused on the effects of valve wobbling on fuel spray behavior in this study, especially on the behavior during the end-of-injection. The effects of wobbling on fuel spray with full valve strokes were first studied, and we found that simulated spray behaviors agreed well with the measured ones. We also studied the effects on fuel dribble during end-of-injection. When a valve wobbled from left to right, the fuel dribble decreased in comparison with a case without wobbling. When a valve wobbled from the front to the rear, however, fuel dribble increased. Surface tension significantly affected fuel dribble, especially in forming low-speed liquid columns and coarse droplets. Fuel dribble was simulated while changing the wetting angle on walls from 60 to 5 degrees. We found that the appearance of coarse droplets in sprays decreased during the end-of-injection by changing the wetting angles from 60 to 5 degrees.

Volume of Fluid (VOF) and Eulerian-Lagrangian (EL)/Discrete Droplet Methods (DDM) are two of the most widely used methods in spray simulations. It is well known that these two methods have their pros and cons. VOF is good at capturing the transient detailed flow physics, while it is usually very expensive. EL is very efficient; however, to inject spray parcels, some experimental/pre-computed information is needed, such as rate of injection, and/or the parcel radius distributions, etc. It is often the case, the detailed fluid flow information at the nozzle exit, which is essential for downstream droplet breakup and coalescence, cannot be accounted in the EL method. In this paper, we developed a one-way coupled approach, in which VOF is employed to compute the detailed fluid field in the injector and this fluid information is then utilized by EL for the injection of parcels at the nozzle exit. The one-way coupled approach is used to calculate some ECN (Engine Combustion Network) spray cases, such as Spray A and Spray H. The simulated results are compared to the experimental data, and satisfactory agreement is obtained.

Lower engine emissions and improved fuel efficiency have recently become more necessary in automobile engines. Fuel injectors need to be designed to decrease late fuel during valve closing and to deal with multiple injections. Fuel-spray behaviors are controlled by the valve-lifts of fuel injectors; therefore, air/fuel mixture simulations that integrate with inner flow simulations in fuel injectors during the opening and closing of valves are essential for studying the effects of valve motions on air/fuel mixtures. We previously developed a late-fuel simulation near the nozzle outlets of a fuel injector during valve closing; fuel flows within the flow paths of the fuel injector were simulated by a front capturing method, and fuel breakups near the nozzle outlets were mainly simulated by a particle method. The inlet boundary of the fuel injector was controlled in order to affect the valve motions on the late-fuel behavior. In this study, we improved the late-fuel simulation by adding a valve opening function. The motion of droplets within the air/fuel mixture region was calculated by using a discrete droplet model (DDM). The injection conditions for the DDM were defined with the results of the improved late-fuel simulation; positions and velocities of droplets at the injection point were defined by using the results of the late-fuel simulation. The simulation results were validated by comparing the simulated fuel breakup near the nozzle outlets and the air/fuel mixtures in the air region with the measured ones, revealing good agreement between them. The effects of opening and closing the valve on the air/fuel mixtures were also studied; the opening and closing of the valve affected the front and rear behaviors of the air/fuel mixture and also affected spray penetrations. The developed simulation was found to be an effective tool for studying the effects of valve motions on the air/fuel mixtures.

The Kelvin-Helmholtz/Rayleigh-Taylor (KH-RT) wave breakup model is a commonly used model in predicting primary and secondary atomization and breakup processes in Lagrangian-Eulerian Diesel spray simulations. Droplet sizes predicted by this model are dependent on several parameters. The parameters include fuel physical properties, such as density, viscosity, and surface tension, and a number of adjustable model constants, such as KH and RT time constants, KH and RT size constants, and the breakup length constant. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of these parameters on predicting spray motions using large-eddy simulation with the dynamic structure sub-grid stress model. The code used in this study is OpenFOAM. This study has three major parts. Firstly, effects of the model constants on the prediction of momentum exchange process were examined by comparing liquid and gas momentum fluxes. Drag Forces exerted on liquid spray by gas phase can be determined from the slopes of gas and liquid momentum fluxes plotted against axial distance. We found that the prediction of momentum exchange between gas and liquid is most sensitive to the KH time constant, B 1 , among the other model constants. Secondly, effects of fuel physical properties were investigated by using four different fuels in the simulations of non-vaporizing and vaporizing sprays. The four fuels used were n-dodecane, F76 fuel, n-hexadecane, and methyl tetradecanoate. The F76 fuel is a multi-component fuel containing twenty-one hydrocarbons. Global spray quantities such as liquid and vapor penetrations, Sauter mean diameter, total liquid mass, number of parcels, and breakup model quantities such as Ohnesorge number and KH wave speed were compared. The key finding is that not all of these quantities monotonically increase or decrease with fuel molecular weight. Lastly, effects of fuel physical properties on sensitivities of the breakup model constants were studied. We compared liquid penetration and vapor penetration for each fuel using different values of the model constants. We found that the prediction of vapor penetrations is more sensitive to the KH time constant B 1 when a fuel with lighter molecular weight was used, and the prediction of liquid penetrations is sensitive to the breakup length constant, C b , in all of the four fuels. The computational investigations in this study reveal some limitations of the current spray breakup model, and motivate us to develop more advanced models to overcome these limitations.

Late fuel during closing of the valve of a fuel-injector and fuel films stuck on the wall around the nozzle outlets are sources of PM. In this study, we focused on effects of the valve motions on the late fuel and the fuel films stuck on the walls around the nozzle outlets. We previously developed a particle/grid hybrid method: fuel flows within the flow paths of fuel injectors were simulated by a front capturing method, and liquid-column breakup at the nozzle outlets was mainly simulated by a particle method. The velocity at the inlet boundary of a fuel injector was controlled in order to affect the valve motions on the late-fuel behavior. The simulated late fuel broke up with surface-tension around the time of zero-stroke position of the valve, then liquid columns and coarse droplets formed after the bounds of the valve, and finally only coarse droplets were left. We found that the late fuel was generated by low-speed fuel-flows through the nozzles during the bounds of the valve. The effect of the bounds of the valve on the fuel films stuck on the wall around the nozzle outlets was also studied with a simulation that removed the bounds of the valve. The volume of the fuel films stuck on the wall of the nozzle outlets decreased without the bounds of the valve.

Increasing attention has being paid to alternative fuels that have the potential to reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions and fossil fuel dependence. The alcohol fuel n-butanol, as one of the advanced biofuels, can be potentially utilized as a partial or complete substitute for the diesel fuel in diesel engines. Experimental results from literature, as well as from the authors’ previous research, have shown promising trend of low soot and nitrogen oxides emissions from the combustion with n-butanol high pressure direct injection. However, due to the significant fuel property differences between n-butanol and diesel, the fuel delivery mechanism and combustion control algorithm need to be optimized for n-butanol use. A better understanding of the high pressure n-butanol injection characteristics, such as the injector opening/closing delays and spray droplet sizes, can provide the guidance for the control optimization and insights to the empirical observations of engine combustion and emissions. Meanwhile, the experimental data could be used for the model development of the n-butanol high pressure fuel injection events. In this work, injection rate measurement, high-speed video direct imaging, and phase Doppler anemometry (PDA) analysis of neat n-butanol and diesel fuel have been conducted with a light-duty high pressure common-rail fuel injection system. The injection rate measurement was performed with an offline injection rate analyzer at 20 bar backpressure to obtain the key parameters of the injector opening/closing delays, and the instantaneous pressure rise. The spray direct imaging was carried out in a pressurized chamber, and the PDA measurement was conducted on a test bench at ambient temperature and pressure. The injector dynamics and spray behavior with respect to the different fuels, variation of injection pressures, and variation of injection durations are discussed.

Using the latest manufacturing technology and patented nozzle geometry, an innovative high-speed (two or more injections at an engine operating speed of 6,000 RPM), lightweight fuel injection system was developed that controls supercavitation within the fuel injector nozzle. The patented supercavitating fuel injector nozzle reduces the penetration length of the fuel spray by 25–30%, average droplet size by 15.5% when operating at the same fuel pressure, and improves droplet size uniformity over conventional nozzles. The combination of these properties represents a tremendous opportunity to improve fuel delivery in engines. In addition to the performance benefits, this technology could be easily implemented into any direct-injected engine system, both compression ignition and spark ignition engines, reciprocating and rotary, because only the nozzle assembly needs to be developed for that particular fuel injector platform.

Rate-of-momentum measurements of transient fuel sprays are valuable for improving current combustion and emission strategies. This data provides boundary conditions for engine computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations and provides insight into the transient mixing characteristics of the spray prior to and during combustion. Previous researchers have quantified the rate-of-momentum of transient sprays using the impingement technique, but uncertainties remain in relating the impingement force to the injected fuel momentum at the nozzle exit. Rate-of-momentum measurements are typically performed by directing a spray onto the face of a calibrated transducer in close proximity to the nozzle. The measured impingement force is then used to quantify the rate-of-momentum at the nozzle orifice exit with the aid of a simplified control volume analysis. However, under elevated back pressures, additional terms in the control volume analysis are no longer negligible. Other non-idealities, such as non-orthogonal droplet impingement outcomes and transient mass accumulation in the control volume, can also contribute to errors in the simplified analysis. This paper investigates the impact of non-idealities in impingement-based rate-of-momentum measurements on the quantified fuel injection rate. In specific, we compare the measured rate-of-momentum under back pressure and atmospheric pressure using two different transducers to quantify uncertainties that can arise under back pressure conditions. Uncertainties associated with transient mass accumulation and non-orthogonal spray deflection are also investigated. We found that back pressure affected both the start and end of injection when compared to atmospheric pressure. Under back pressure, there was a lengthened apparent start-of-injection transient, which likely results from a low pressure toroidal vortex occurring at the head of the spray. In addition, there was a longer apparent closing transient, which is likely a result of residual pressure distribution after the end-of-injection. No evidence of transient mass accumulation was observed for the injectors used in this study. Lastly, the transient spray was observed to deflect non-orthogonally from the impact point on the transducer instead of remaining parallel to the transducer face after initial impact. This deflection of the spray leads to uncertainties when quantifying the rate-of-momentum, where the apparent rate-of-momentum could be larger than the actual value.

There is increasing interest in application of various alternative fuels in marine diesel engines, including methanol. One of the challenges in the relevant research is the development of computer codes for simulation of the dual-fuel working process and engineering optimization of engines. In this work the mathematical model is described which simulates a mixture formation and combustion in an engine with a dual-fuel system, in which methanol is used as main fuel and a pilot portion of diesel oil is injected to ignite methanol. The developed combustion model was incorporated into the existing engine full cycle thermodynamic simulation tool, namely DIESEL-RK [1]. The developed combustion model includes the self-ignition delay calculation sub-model based on the detail chemistry simulation of methanol pre-combustion reactions, sub-model of evaporation of methanol droplets, submodels of methanol fuel sprays penetration, spray angle and droplets forming, respectively. The developed computer code allows engineers to account for the arbitrary shape of the combustion chamber. Additionally, each fuel system (for methanol and diesel oil) may include several injectors with arbitrary oriented nozzles with different diameters and central, off-central and side location in the combustion chamber. The fuel sprays evolution model consists of equations with dimensionless parameters to account for fuel properties and in-cylinder conditions. Specifics of injection pressure profiles and interaction of sprays with the air swirl and between themselves are also considered. The model allows engineers to carry out rapid parametric analysis. Results of modelling for a medium speed dual-fuel diesel engine are presented which demonstrate a good agreement between calculated and experimental heat release curves and integral engine data.

For copious levels of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) (>30 %), oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emissions can be reduced from Euro V to Euro VI regulated levels at the expense of fuel economy and soot emissions. The Lifted-Flame Concept (LFC) has been demonstrated by several researchers to be successful in reducing NOx, while minimizing soot emissions and impact to fuel economy. By simultaneously applying increased EGR and fuel pressure the LFC extends the lift-off length of a diffusion flame and enhances fuel-air entrainment leading to improved fuel and oxygen utilization. When combined with advanced turbocharging and EGR systems the LFC applied to a modern light duty (LD) diesel engine can result in improved fuel economy and lower soot emissions and shows good potential for meeting low soot engine-out targets. In the proposed paper a computational study was conducted using a multi-dimensional engine model. A modified 3D CFD KIVA code with detailed chemistry solver was used to model the diesel fuel spray, droplet breakup, vaporization, mixing, auto-ignition and subsequent heat release and emissions. The model uses inputs from 1D Amesim electro-hydraulic solver to generate the rate of injection (ROI) profile to raise pressure of 1800 bar to 2500 bar as well as to include a simulated post-injection. A 1D model using GT-Power was developed and utilized to provide air system boundary conditions for the 3D CFD model. Post-processing optimization was conducted using Matlab to identify minimum fuel economy and soot emissions for the study of several parameters. The objective of the study was to demonstrate Euro VI emissions levels on a 3.2 L LD diesel engine without NOx aftertreatment and minimal impact to fuel economy using the lifted flame concept. The engine-out NOx emission level was targeted at 0.4 g/kWh and the soot levels were targeted at 0.2 g/kWh assuming diesel particulate filter would be used for after-treatment. The results of the computational study successfully demonstrate the potential of the lifted flame concept to meet Euro VI without the use of NOx aftertreatment technology.

Direct injection gasoline-engines have both better engine power and fuel efficiency than port injection gasoline-engines. However, direct injection gasoline-engines also emit more particulate matter (PM) than port injection gasoline-engines do. To decrease PM, fuel injectors with short spray-penetration are required. More effective fuel injectors can be preliminarily designed by numerically simulating fuel spray. We previously developed a fuel-spray simulation. Both the fuel flow within the flow paths of an injector and the liquid column at the injector outlet were simulated by using a grid method. The liquid-column breakup was simulated by using a particle method. The motion of droplets within the air/fuel mixture (secondary-drop-breakup) region was calculated by using a discrete droplet model (DDM). In this study, we applied our fuel-spray simulation to sprays for the direct injection gasoline-engines. Simulated spray penetrations agreed relatively well with measured spray penetrations. Velocity distributions at the outlet of three kinds of nozzles were plotted by using a histogram, and the relationship between the velocity distributions and spray penetrations was studied. We found that shrinking the high-speed region and making the velocity-distribution uniform were required for short spray penetration.

An experimental study of diesel-benzyl azides blend droplets vaporization characteristics was carried out to study the reasons of diesel-benzyl azides blend shortened combustion duration using suspended droplet device and a high-speed video camera. Experiments were performed at atmospheric pressure, ambient temperature range 480–933 K, and initial droplet diameter of 0.98, 1.42, 1.88 mm. The results show a shorten in diesel-benzyl azides blend droplet lifetime by 10% compared to diesel droplet at 1.42 mm initial droplet diameter and 933 K ambient temperature companion to puffing. The above results support the original idea of designing diesel-benzyl azides blend where the energy released by the decomposition of azides improves the vaporization and the release of nitrogen leads to the breakup of the droplet. In addition, it is observed that the blend lifetime decrease with increasing ambient temperature compared to diesel droplet lifetime. More nitrogen is released and the expansion of bubbles is more violent with increasing initial droplet diameter.

A fuel injector with multi-swirl nozzles for finely atomizing a fuel spray in a gasoline engine was developed. The multi-swirl nozzles are composed of swirl chambers placed in the upstream of each orifice which is an outlet of injector. The swirl flow produced by the swirl chambers forms thin liquid films on the walls of the orifices by centrifugal force, and these films break up into small droplets outside the orifices. In this study, fuel flow within the swirl nozzle was simulated by using the volume of fluid (VOF) method, and the simulated velocities and width of the thin liquid film were used to predict the droplet size and spray angle of the fuel spray. Miyamoto’s atomization model was applied to connect a circumferential velocity and a width of the liquid film at the orifice outlet with the droplet size. It was found that the droplet size and spray angle of multi-swirl nozzles can be predicted by using the VOF method and Miyamoto’s atomization model.

A numerical study of micro-explosion in multi-component bio-fuel droplets is presented. The onset of micro-explosion is characterized by the normalized onset radius (NOR). Bubble expansion is described by a modified Rayleigh equation. The final breakup is modeled from a surface energy approach by determining the minimal surface energy (MSE). After the breakup, the Sauter mean radius (SMR) for initially small size droplets can be estimated from a look-up table generated from the current breakup model. There exists an optimal droplet size for the onset of micro-explosion. The MSE approach reaches the same conclusion as previous model determining atomization by aerodynamic disturbances. The SMR of secondary droplets can be estimated by the possible void fraction, ε, at breakup and the corresponding surface Weber number, Wes, at the minimal surface energy ratio (MSER). Biodiesel can enhance micro-explosion in the fuel blends of ethanol and diesel (which is represented by a single composition tetradecane). The simulation results show that the secondary atomization of bio-fuel and diesel blends can be achieved by micro-explosion under typical diesel engine operation conditions.

A finite diffusion droplet evaporation model for complex liquid mixture composed of different homogeneous groups is presented in this paper. Separate distribution functions are used to describe the composition of each homogeneous group in the mixture. Only a few parameters are required to describe the mixture. Quasi-steady assumption is applied in the determination of evaporation rates and heat flux to the droplet, and the effects of surface regression, finite diffusion and preferential vaporization of the mixture are included in the liquid phase equations using an effective properties approach. A novel approach was used to reduce the transport equations for the liquid phase to a set of ordinary differential equations. The proposed model is capable in capturing the vaporization characteristics of complex liquid mixtures.

A laser 2-focus velocimeter (L2F) has been applied for measurements of velocity and size of droplets of diesel spray and an evaluation method of mass flow rate has been proposed. The L2F has a micro-scale probe which consists of two foci. The distance between two foci is 17μm. The data acquisition rate of the L2F has been increased to 15MHz in order to capture every droplet which appears in the measurement volume. The diesel fuel spray injected intermittently into the atmosphere was investigated. The orifice diameter of the injector nozzle was 0.113mm. The injection pressure was set at 40MPa by using a common rail system. Measurements were conducted on ten planes 5 to 25mm downstream from the nozzle exit. It was clearly shown that the velocity of droplet was the highest at the spray center. The size of droplet at the spray center decreased downstream within 15mm from the nozzle exit. The mass flow rate near the spray center was found to be larger than that in the spray periphery region. It was confirmed that the fuel mass per injection evaluated by the proposed method based on the L2F measurement was near to the injected mass in a plane further than 15mm from the nozzle exit. However, fuel mass was underestimated in a plane closer to the nozzle exit. The probability density of infinitesimal distance between surfaces of adjacent droplets increased remarkably near the spray center 5 and 12mm downstream from the nozzle exit. As infinitesimal distance can be thought as an indicator of a highly dense region, it is understood that underestimation of fuel mass near the nozzle exit is due to the highly dense region. The diameter of the region, where the highly dense region was observed, was estimated as an order of 0.2mm in a plane 5mm downstream from the nozzle.

Biodiesel is a desirable alternative fuel for the diesel engine due to its low engine-out soot emission tendency. When blended with petroleum-based diesel fuels, soot emissions generally decrease in proportion to the volume fraction of biodiesel in the mixture. While comparisons of engine-out soot measurements between biodiesel blends and petroleum-based diesel have been widely reported, in-cylinder soot evolution has not been experimentally explored to the same extent. To elucidate the soot emission reduction mechanism of biodiesel, a single-cylinder optically-accessible diesel engine was used to compare the in-cylinder soot evolution when fueled with ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) to that using a B20 biodiesel blend (20% vol/vol biodiesel ASTM D6751-03A). Soot temperature and KL factors are simultaneously determined using a novel two-color optical thermometry technique implemented with a high-speed CMOS color camera having wide-band Bayer filters. The crank-angle resolved data allows quantitative comparison of the rate of in-cylinder soot formation. High-speed spray images show that B20 has more splashing during spray wall impingement than ULSD, distributing rebounding fuel droplets over a thicker annular ring interior to the piston bowl periphery. The subsequent soot luminescence is observed by high-speed combustion imaging and soot temperature and KL factor measurements. B20 forms soot both at low KL magnitudes over large areas between fuel jets, and at high values among remnants of the fuel spray, along its axis and away from the bowl edge. In contrast, ULSD soot luminescence is observed exclusively as pool burning on the piston bowl surfaces resulting from fuel wall impingement. The soot KL factor evolution during B20 combustion indicates earlier and significantly greater soot formation than with ULSD. B20 combustion is also observed to have a greater soot oxidation rate which results in lower engine-out soot emissions. Measured soot temperatures near 1875K were similar for the two fuels for the duration of combustion. For both fuels, higher fuel injection pressure led to lower late-cycle soot KL levels. The trends of soot natural luminosity correlated well with the trends of soot KL factor, suggesting that relatively simple measurements of combustion luminosity may provide somewhat quantitative information about in-cylinder soot formation and oxidation. The apparent rate of heat release (ARHR) analysis under steady skip-fire conditions indicates that B20 combustion is less sensitive to wall temperature than that observed with ULSD due to a lesser degree of pool burning. B20 was found to have both a shorter ignition delay and shorter combustion duration than ULSD.