Current transportation fuels, such as gasoline, jet fuel, diesel fuel, and even non-petroleum-derived alternative fuels, are very complex mixtures of various classes of hydrocarbons. Fuel surrogates, which are simple mixtures of few well-characterized pure hydrocarbons that mimic targeted combustion characteristics of real fuels, have been a critical component for detailed combustion modeling of transportation fuels. We have developed a methodology to optimize surrogate formulation to identify mixtures emulating multiple target properties of real fuels. ...

Combustion in practical combustion devices, such as internal combustion engines, is a very complex physical and chemical phenomenon. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations coupled with detailed chemical mechanisms provide a great opportunity to explore such complex processes. Using this approach, we have investigated a wide range of problems, including the effect of various fuel physical properties on the ignition process of fuel spray and the influence of injection strategies on soot emissions from Gasoline Direct Injection engines. In addition, CFD simulations provide valuable insights and numerical data for our work on surrogate formulation.