Rally_nutcase_1982

7.1 What is the Octane Number Requirement of a Vehicle?

The actual octane requirement of a vehicle is called the Octane Number
Requirement (ONR), and is determined by using series of standard octane fuels
that can be blends of iso-octane and normal heptane ( primary reference ),
or commercial gasolines ( full-boiling reference ). In Europe, delta RON
(100C) fuels are also used, but seldom in the USA. The vehicle is tested
under a wide range of conditions and loads, using decreasing octane fuels
from each series until trace knock is detected. The conditions that require
maximum octane are not consistent, but often are full-throttle acceleration
from low starting speeds using the highest gear available. They can even be
at constant speed conditions, which are usually performed on chassis
dynamometers [27,28,111]. Engine management systems that adjust the octane
requirement may also reduce the power output on low octane fuel, resulting
in increased fuel consumption, and adaptive learning systems have to be
preconditioned prior to testing. The maximum ONR is of most interest, as that
usually defines the recommended fuel, however it is recognised that the
general public seldom drive as severely as the testers, and so may be
satisfied by a lower octane fuel [28].

7.2 What is the effect of Compression ratio?

Most people know that an increase in Compression Ratio will require an
increase in fuel octane for the same engine design. Increasing the
compression ratio increases the theoretical thermodynamic efficiency of an
engine according to the standard equation

Efficiency = 1 - (1/compression ratio)^gamma-1

where gamma = ratio of specific heats at constant pressure and constant
volume of the working fluid ( for most purposes air is the working fluid,
and is treated as an ideal gas ). There are indications that thermal
efficiency reaches a maximum at a compression ratio of about 17:1 for
gasoline fuels in an SI engine [23].

The efficiency gains are best when the engine is at incipient knock, that's
why knock sensors ( actually vibration sensors ) are used. Low compression
ratio engines are less efficient because they can not deliver as much of the
ideal combustion power to the flywheel. For a typical carburetted engine,
without engine management [27,38]:-

Compression Octane Number Brake Thermal Efficiency
Ratio Requirement ( Full Throttle )
5:1 72 -
6:1 81 25 %
7:1 87 28 %
8:1 92 30 %
9:1 96 32 %
10:1 100 33 %
11:1 104 34 %
12:1 108 35 %

Modern engines have improved significantly on this, and the changing fuel
specifications and engine design should see more improvements, but
significant gains may have to await improved engine materials and fuels.

7.3 What is the effect of changing the air-fuel ratio?

Traditionally, the greatest tendency to knock was near 13.5:1 air-fuel
ratio, but was very engine specific. Modern engines, with engine management
systems, now have their maximum octane requirement near to 14.5:1. For a
given engine using gasoline, the relationship between thermal efficiency,
air-fuel ratio, and power is complex. Stoichiometric combustion ( air-fuel
ratio = 14.7:1 for a typical non-oxygenated gasoline ) is neither maximum
power - which occurs around air-fuel 12-13:1 (Rich), nor maximum thermal
efficiency - which occurs around air-fuel 16-18:1 (Lean). The air-fuel ratio
is controlled at part throttle by a closed loop system using the oxygen sensor
in the exhaust. Conventionally, enrichment for maximum power air-fuel ratio
is used during full throttle operation to reduce knocking while providing
better driveability [38]. An average increase of 2 (R+M)/2 ON is required
for each 1.0 increase (leaning) of the air-fuel ratio [111]. If the mixture
is weakened, the flame speed is reduced, consequently less heat is converted
to mechanical energy, leaving heat in the cylinder walls and head,
potentially inducing knock. It is possible to weaken the mixture sufficiently
that the flame is still present when the inlet valve opens again, resulting
in backfiring.

7.4 What is the effect of changing the ignition timing?

The tendency to knock increases as spark advance is increased. For an engine
with recommended 6 degrees BTDC ( Before Top Dead Centre ) timing and 93
octane fuel, retarding the spark 4 degrees lowers the octane requirement to
91, whereas advancing it 8 degrees requires 96 octane fuel [27]. It should
be noted this requirement depends on engine design. If you advance the spark,
the flame front starts earlier, and the end gases start forming earlier in
the cycle, providing more time for the autoigniting species to form before
the piston reaches the optimum position for power delivery, as determined by
the normal flame front propagation. It becomes a race between the flame front
and decomposition of the increasingly-squashed end gases. High octane fuels
produce end gases that take longer to autoignite, so the good flame front
reaches and consumes them properly.

The ignition advance map is partly determined by the fuel the engine is
intended to use. The timing of the spark is advanced sufficiently to ensure
that the fuel-air mixture burns in such a way that maximum pressure of the
burning charge is about 15-20 degree after TDC. Knock will occur before
this point, usually in the late compression - early power stroke period.
The engine management system uses ignition timing as one of the major
variables that is adjusted if knock is detected. If very low octane fuels
are used ( several octane numbers below the vehicle's requirement at optimal
settings ), both performance and fuel economy will decrease.

The actual Octane Number Requirement depends on the engine design, but for
some 1978 vehicles using standard fuels, the following (R+M)/2 Octane
Requirements were measured. "Standard" is the recommended ignition timing
for the engine, probably a few degrees BTDC [38].

Basic Ignition Timing
Vehicle Retarded 5 degrees Standard Advanced 5 degrees
A 88 91 93
B 86 90.5 94.5
C 85.5 88 90
D 84 87.5 91
E 82.5 87 90

The actual ignition timing to achieve the maximum pressure from normal
combustion of gasoline will depend mainly on the speed of the engine and the
flame propagation rates in the engine. Knock increases the rate of the
pressure rise, thus superimposing additional pressure on the normal
combustion pressure rise. The knock actually rapidly resonates around the
chamber, creating a series of abnormal sharp spikes on the pressure diagram.
The normal flame speed is fairly consistent for most gasoline HCs, regardless
of octane rating, but the flame speed is affected by stoichiometry. Note that
the flame speeds in this FAQ are not the actual engine flame speeds. A 12:1
CR gasoline engine at 1500 rpm would have a flame speed of about 16.5 m/s,
and a similar hydrogen engine yields 48.3 m/s, but such engine flame speeds
are also very dependent on stoichiometry.

7.5 What is the effect of engine management systems?

Engine management systems are now an important part of the strategy to
reduce automotive pollution. The good news for the consumer is their ability
to maintain the efficiency of gasoline combustion, thus improving fuel
economy. The bad news is their tendency to hinder tuning for power. A very
basic modern engine system could monitor and control:- mass air flow, fuel
flow, ignition timing, exhaust oxygen ( lambda oxygen sensor ), knock
( vibration sensor ), EGR, exhaust gas temperature, coolant temperature, and
intake air temperature. The knock sensor can be either a nonresonant type
installed in the engine block and capable of measuring a wide range of knock
vibrations ( 5-15 kHz ) with minimal change in frequency, or a resonant type
that has excellent signal-to-noise ratio between 1000 and 5000 rpm [112].

A modern engine management system can compensate for altitude, ambient air
temperature, and fuel octane. The management system will also control cold
start settings, and other operational parameters. There is a new requirement
that the engine management system also contain an on-board diagnostic
function that warns of malfunctions such as engine misfire, exhaust catalyst
failure, and evaporative emissions failure. The use of fuels with alcohols
such as methanol can confuse the engine management system as they generate
more hydrogen which can fool the oxygen sensor [76] .

The use of fuel of too low octane can actually result in both a loss of fuel
economy and power, as the management system may have to move the engine
settings to a less efficient part of the performance map. The system retards
the ignition timing until only trace knock is detected, as engine damage
from knock is of more consequence than power and fuel economy.

7.6 What is the effect of temperature and load?

Increasing the engine temperature, particularly the air-fuel charge
temperature, increases the tendency to knock. The Sensitivity of a fuel can
indicate how it is affected by charge temperature variations. Increasing
load increases both the engine temperature, and the end-gas pressure, thus
the likelihood of knock increases as load increases. Increasing the water
jacket temperature from 71C to 82C, increases the (R+M)/2 ONR by two [111].

7.7 What is the effect of engine speed?.

Faster engine speed means there is less time for the pre-flame reactions
in the end gases to occur, thus reducing the tendency to knock. On engines
with management systems, the ignition timing may be advanced with engine
speed and load, to obtain optimum efficiency at incipient knock. In such
cases, both high and low engines speeds may be critical.

7.8 What is the effect of engine deposits?

A new engine may only require a fuel of 6-9 octane numbers lower than the
same engine after 25,000 km. This Octane Requirement Increase (ORI) is due to
the formation of a mixture of organic and inorganic deposits resulting from
both the fuel and the lubricant. They reach an equilibrium amount because
of flaking, however dramatic changes in driving styles can also result in
dramatic changes of the equilibrium position. When the engine starts to burn
more oil, the octane requirement can increase again. ORIs up to 12 are not
uncommon, depending on driving style [27,28,32,111]. The deposits produce
the ORI by several mechanisms:-
- they reduce the combustion chamber volume, effectively increasing the
compression ratio.
- they also reduce thermal conductivity, thus increasing the combustion
chamber temperatures.
- they catalyse undesirable pre-flame reactions that produce end gases with
low autoignition temperatures.

7.9 What is the Road Octane Number of a Fuel?

The CFR octane rating engines do not reflect actual conditions in a vehicle,
consequently there are standard procedures for evaluating the performance
of the gasoline in an engine. The most common are:-
1. The Modified Uniontown Procedure. Full throttle accelerations are made
from low speed using primary reference fuels. The ignition timing is
adjusted until trace knock is detected at some stage. Several reference
fuels are used, and a Road Octane Number v Basic Ignition timing graph is
obtained. The fuel sample is tested, and the trace knock ignition timing
setting is read from the graph to provide the Road Octane Number. This is
a rapid procedure but provides minimal information, and cars with engine
management systems require sophisticated electronic equipment to adjust
the ignition timing [28].
2. The Modified Borderline Knock Procedure. The automatic spark advance is
disabled, and a manual adjustment facility added. Accelerations are
performed as in the Modified Uniontown Procedure, however trace knock is
maintained throughout the run by adjustment of the spark advance. A map
of ignition advance v engine speed is made for several reference fuels
and the sample fuels. This procedure can show the variation of road octane
with engine speed, however the technique is almost impossible to perform
on vehicles with modern management systems [28].

The Road Octane Number lies between the MON and RON, and the difference
between the RON and the Road Octane number is called 'depreciation" [111].
Because nominally-identical new vehicle models display octane requirements
that can range over seven numbers, a large number of vehicles have to be
tested [28,111].

7.10 What is the effect of air temperature?

An increase in ambient air temperature of 5.6C increases the octane
requirement of an engine by 0.44 - 0.54 MON [27,38]. When the combined effects
of air temperature and humidity are considered, it is often possible to use
one octane grade in summer, and use a lower octane rating in winter. The
Motor octane rating has a higher charge temperature, and increasing charge
temperature increases the tendency to knock, so fuels with low Sensitivity
( the difference between RON and MON numbers ) are less affected by air
temperature.

7.11 What is the effect of altitude?

The effect of increasing altitude may be nonlinear, with one study reporting
a decrease of the octane requirement of 1.4 RON/300m from sea level to 1800m
and 2.5 RON/300m from 1800m to 3600m [27]. Other studies report the octane
number requirement decreased by 1.0 - 1.9 RON/300m without specifying
altitude [38]. Modern engine management systems can accommodate this
adjustment, and in some recent studies, the octane number requirement was
reduced by 0.2 - 0.5 (R+M)/2 per 300m increase in altitude.
The larger reduction on older engines was due to:-
- reduced air density provides lower combustion temperature and pressure.
- fuel is metered according to air volume, consequently as density decreases
the stoichiometry moves to rich, with a lower octane number requirement.
- manifold vacuum controlled spark advance, and reduced manifold vacuum
results in less spark advance.

7.12 What is the effect of humidity?.

An increase of absolute humidity of 1.0 g water/kg of dry air lowers the
octane requirement of an engine by 0.25 - 0.32 MON [27,28,38].

7.13 What does water injection achieve?.

Water injection, as a separate liquid or emulsion with gasoline, or as a
vapour, has been thoroughly researched. If engines can calibrated to operate
with small amounts of water, knock can be suppressed, hydrocarbon emissions
will slightly increase, NOx emissions will decrease, CO does not change
significantly, and fuel and energy consumption are increased [113].

Water injection was used in WWII aviation engine to provide a large increase
in available power for very short periods. The injection of water does
decrease the dew point of the exhaust gases. This has potential corrosion
problems. The very high specific heat and heat of vaporisation of water
means that the combustion temperature will decrease. It has been shown that
a 10% water addition to methanol reduces the power and efficiency by about
3%, and doubles the unburnt fuel emissions, but does reduce NOx by 25% [114].
A decrease in combustion temperature will reduce the theoretical maximum
possible efficiency of an otto cycle engine that is operating correctly,
but may improve efficiency in engines that are experiencing abnormal
combustion on existing fuels.

Some aviation SI engines still use boost fluids. The water-methanol mixtures
are used to provide increased power for short periods, up to 40% more -
assuming adequate mechanical strength of the engine. The 40/60 or 45/55
water-methanol mixtures are used as boost fluids for aviation engines because
water would freeze. Methanol is just "preburnt" methane, consequently it only
has about half the energy content of gasoline, but it does have a higher heat
of vaporisation, which has a significant cooling effect on the charge.
Water-methanol blends are more cost-effective than gasoline for combustion
cooling. The high Sensitivity of alcohol fuels has to be considered in the
engine design and settings.

Boost fluids are used because they are far more economical than using the
fuel. When a supercharged engine has to be operated at high boost, the
mixture has to be enriched to keep the engine operating without knock. The
extra fuel cools the cylinder walls and the charge, thus delaying the onset
of knock which would otherwise occur at the associated higher temperatures.

The overall effect of boost fluid injection is to permit a considerable
increase in knock-free engine power for the same combustion chamber
temperature. The power increase is obtained from the higher allowable boost.
In practice, the fuel mixture is usually weakened when using boost fluid
injection, and the ratio of the two fuel fluids is approximately 100 parts
of avgas to 25 parts of boost fluid. With that ratio, the resulting
performance corresponds to an effective uprating of the fuel of about 25%,
irrespective of its original value. Trying to increase power boosting above
40% is difficult, as the engine can drown because of excessive liquid [110].

Note that for water injection to provide useful power gains, the engine
management and fuel systems must be able to monitor the knock and adjust
both stoichiometry and ignition to obtain significant benefits. Aviation
engines are designed to accommodate water injection, most automobile engines
are not. Returns on investment are usually harder to achieve on engines that
do not normal extend their performance envelope into those regions. Water
injection has been used by some engine manufacturers - usually as an
expedient way to maintain acceptable power after regulatory emissions
baggage was added to the engine, but usually the manufacturer quickly
produces a modified engine that does not require water injection.

Nappy

allroadCole's old hitch is currently installed on my car (gives thumbs up).

ColoradoSpringsAR

That's right. We have 85, 87, or 91. That's all we can get here, in Wyoming, and Utah. I'm not sure about other mountain states.

allroadCole

those are the only options we have in Bellingham wa, about 10' above sea level.

glidar

Holy cow -- if 1.4RON/300m is true, we only need 85 in Denver.

allroadCole

Vewy Intewesting.....