This thesis reports a model to predict the auto-ignition time of single droplets of n-paraffin fuel mixtures using the method of continuous thermodynamics. The model uses experimental data for pure fuels to fit rate parameters for a single-step global chemical reaction equation; from this, correlations for rate parameters as a function of species molecular mass are derived, which are integrated to produce a continuous thermodynamics expression for mixture reaction rate. Experiments were carried out using the suspended droplet-moving furnace technique. The model was then tested and compared to experimental data for three continuous mixtures with known compositions: one ranging from ¬n-octane to n-hexadecane, the second ranging from n-dodecane to n-eicosane, and the third being a combination of the first two mixtures to produce a “dumbbell” mixture. Discrete and continuous mixture models of the ASTM standard distillation test were compared to design the experimental mixtures and provide the distribution parameters of the continuous mixtures intended to simulate them. The results of calculations were found to agree very well with measured ignition times for the mixtures.

The principle of controlled auto-ignition (CAI) is to mix fuel and air homogeneously before compressing the mixture to the point of auto-ignition. As ignition occurs simultaneously, CAI engines operate with lean mixtures preventing high cylinder pressures. CAI engines produce small amounts of nitrogen oxides (NOx) due to low combustion temperatures while maintaining high compression ratios and engine efficiencies. Due to simultaneous combustion and lean mixtures, CAI engines are restricted between low and mid load operations. Various strategies have been studied to improve the load limit of CAI engines. The scope of the project is to investigate the consequences of varying valve timing, as a method to control the mixture temperature within the combustion chamber and therefore, controlling the mixture auto-ignition point. This study presents computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling results of transient flow, inside a 0.45 litre Lotus single cylinder engine. After a validation process, a chemical kinetics model is combined with the CFD code, in order to study in-cylinder temperatures, the mixture distribution during compression and to predict the auto-ignition timing. The first part of the study focuses on validating the calculated in-cylinder velocities. A mesh sensitivity study is performed as well as a comparison of different turbulence models. A method to reduce computational time of the calculations is presented. The effects of engine speed on charge delay and charge amount inside the cylinder, the development of the in-cylinder flow field and the variation of turbulence parameters during the intake and compression stroke, are studied. The second part of the study focuses on the gasoline mixture and the variation of the valve timing, to retain different ratios of residual gases within the cylinder. After validation of the model, a final set of CFD calculations is performed, to investigate the effects of valve timing on flow and the engine parameters. The results are then compared to a fully homogeneous mixture model to study the benefits of varying valve duration. New key findings and contributions to CAI knowledge were found in this investigation. Reducing the intake and exhaust valve durations created a mixture temperature stratification and a fuel concentration distribution, prior to auto-ignition. It resulted in extending the heat release rate duration, improving combustion. However, shorter valve timing durations also showed an increase in heat transfer, pumping work and friction power, with a decrease of cylinder indicated efficiency. Valve timing, as a method to control auto-ignition, should only be used when the load limit of CAI engines, is to be improved.

Cette thèse se situe dans le cadre de la simulation numérique de la combustion turbulente à l’aide de méthodes de tabulation de la cinétique chimique. En approximant la structure fine des flammes turbulentes, ces méthodes prennent en compte des effets fins de cinétique chimique pour un faible coup dans les calculs numériques. Ceci permet de prédire les champs de température et d’espèces chimiques incluant les polluants. Le champ d’application de la chimie tabulée a d’abord été réservé à la simulation des écoulements moyens (RANS) dans une hypothèse de faible nombre de Mach pour une combustion dite "conventionnelle". Cependant, le développement actuel de nouvelles technologies de combustion ainsi que celui de modèles numériques plus avancés que les approches RANS nécessite d’étendre ce champ d’application. Les travaux de cette thèse ont mené au développement de nouveaux modèles de chimie tabulée afin de répondre à ces nouvelles exigences. L’émergence de nouvelles technologies comme la combustion sans flamme nécessite le développement de modèles dédiés. Ce mode de combustion présente en effet des structures de flamme mixtes. C’est pourquoi un modèle de tabulation de la cinétique chimique nommé UTaC (Unsteady flamelets Tabulated Chemistry) est proposé pour prédire la combustion diluée à haute température qui caractérise la combustion sans flamme. Le modèle est basé sur la tabulation de solutions instationnaires de flammelettes non-prémelangées qui s’auto-allument. Les pertes thermiques et la dilution variable des gaz brûlés sont négligés dans le cadre de cette thèse par soucis de simplification et de clarté de la validation du modèle. Le modèle est appliqué au cas d’un jet de combustible dilué dans un environnement de gaz vicié qui favorise l’auto-allumage comme moyen de stabilisation d’une flamme liftée. Plusieurs simulations RANS sont réalisées en faisant varier le combustible utilisé. Enfin, une simulation aux grandes échelles (LES) est aussi conduite pour le mélange méthane/air. Plusieurs codes numériques dédiés à la LES sont basés sur une formulation compressible des équations de Navier-Stokes. Cependant les méthodes de tabulation ne permettent pas directement de prendre en compte les effets acoustiques. Un modèle appelé TTC (Tabulated Thermo-chemistry for Compressible flows) a été créé afin d’introduire les méthodes de chimie tabulée dans les codes numériques compressibles. Pour cela, le calcul de la température est reformulé ainsi que le traitement des conditions aux limites à l’aide d’ondes caractéristiques. Enfin, l’application de modèle RANS de tabulation de la cinétique chimique à la LES est souvent faite sans tenir compte des spécificités de la simulation aux grandes échelles. Ainsi, les fonctions de densité de probabilités de type ß qui traduisent l’interaction de la combustion avec la turbulence en RANS sont utilisées telles quelles en LES. Nous montrerons que cette hypothèse est mauvaise car elle ne conserve pas l’intégrale du terme source dans une flamme prémélangée. Un nouveau modèle de chimie tabulée nommé F-TACLES (Filtered Tabulated Chemistry for Large Eddy Simulation) est alors développé spécifiquement pour la simulation aux grandes échelles de la combustion parfaitement prémélangée. Le modèle est basé sur le filtrage de flammes laminaires de prémélange mono-dimensionelles. / The thesis subject is located in the domain of numerical simulation of turbulent combustion through tabulated chemistry methods. These methods allow to include detailed chemistry effects at low cost in numerical simulation by approximating the fine scales structure of turbulent flames. Prediction of temperature and chemical species including pollutants becomes then possible. Tabulated chemistry models were first dedicated to low Mach-number RANS approaches for "conventional" combustion applications. However, the current uprising of new combustion configurations and of more precise numerical modeling than RANS approach requires to widen these range of applications. For that purpose, this thesis led to the development of new tabulated chemistry models. Flameless combustion is one of these new combustion technology that requires dedicated models. Indeed, complex flame structures are encountered in this combustion mode. That is why a tabulated chemistry model called UTaC (Unsteady flamelets Tabulated Chemistry) is derived to simulate high temperature diluted combustion which characterizes flameless combustion. The model lies on the tabulation of laminar unsteady non-premixed flamelets that auto-ignite. Heat losses and variation of dilution with burnt gases are neglected in the topic of this thesis for brevity and simplification of the model validation. The investigated configuration is a fuel jet diluted in a vitiated coflow. The hot coflow promotes auto-ignition in the lifted flame stabilization mechanism. Several RANS computations are performed by changing the fuel composition. Finally, a Large Eddy Simulation (LES) is also realized using a methane/air mixture as the impinging fuel stream. Several numerical codes for LES use a fully compressible formulation of Navier-Stokes equations. However, tabulated chemistry techniques do not take into account acoustic perturbations. A model called TTC (Tabulated Thermo-chemistry for Compressible flows) formalism is therefore developed in order to include tabulated chemistry in compressible CFD codes. TTC formalism consists in reformulating both temperature computation inside the numerical code and the characteristic boundary treatment. Finally, application of tabulated chemistry model to LES is usually done by a straightforward derivation from its RANS version without taking into account LES requirements. Indeed, ß-probability density functions which accounts for turbulence-chemistry interaction in RANS are used in LES although this technique does not conserve the source terms integral in premixed flames. A new model, F-TACLES (Filtered Tabulated Chemistry for Large Eddy Simulation), is then derived specifically for LES of perfectly premixed combustion. This model is based on filtering of 1D laminar premixed flamelets.

This thesis reports a model to predict the auto-ignition time of single droplets of n-paraffin fuel mixtures using the method of continuous thermodynamics. The model uses experimental data for pure fuels to fit rate parameters for a single-step global chemical reaction equation; from this, correlations for rate parameters as a function of species molecular mass are derived, which are integrated to produce a continuous thermodynamics expression for mixture reaction rate. Experiments were carried out using the suspended droplet-moving furnace technique. The model was then tested and compared to experimental data for three continuous mixtures with known compositions: one ranging from ¬n-octane to n-hexadecane, the second ranging from n-dodecane to n-eicosane, and the third being a combination of the first two mixtures to produce a “dumbbell” mixture. Discrete and continuous mixture models of the ASTM standard distillation test were compared to design the experimental mixtures and provide the distribution parameters of the continuous mixtures intended to simulate them. The results of calculations were found to agree very well with measured ignition times for the mixtures.

Increasing the efficiency of the spark-ignition engine can help to reduce the environmental impact of the transportation sector. Engine knock obstructs the increased efficiency that could be gained by increasing the compression ratio in a spark-ignition (SI) engine. A fuel’s propensity to knock is measured by the research octane number (RON) and the motor octane number (MON) in a co-operative fuel research (CFR) engine. A fuel’s octane sensitivity (OS) is the difference between the RON and MON. Modern downsized and turbocharged engines operate at what is considered to be beyond-RON conditions. Studies have shown that having a fuel with higher OS improves knock resistance at beyond-RON conditions. This study aims to gain a better understanding of the role of intermediate-temperature heat release (ITHR) in defining OS and its subsequent impact on SI operation through the experimental framework. The ITHR of toluene primary reference fuels (TPRFs) fuels with matching RON and varying OS was studied at RON-like and MON-like homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) conditions for two different matching criteria. The first criterion was to control the combustion phasing by matching half of the heat release (CA50) to 3 crank angle degrees after top dead center. The second criterion was to match the compression ratios. Results showed that at RON-like HCCI conditions, TPRF fuels display decreasing ITHR with increasing OS. Furthermore, it was shown that TPRF fuels with low sensitivity displayed a greater increase in ITHR from MON-like conditions to RON-like conditions. Thus, the sensitivity of ITHR to changes in operating conditions was found to be a contributing factor to OS. In the beyond-RON conditions (relevant to current modern engines), there is a potential for improved engine efficiency by using fuels with high OS to allow for higher compression ratios. The experimental results of this work show that OS is negatively correlated with ITHR. Thus, high-sensitivity fuels can be designed by choosing components and additives that reduce the amount of ITHR.

Controlled Auto Ignition (CAI) combustion is a new combustion principle in internal combustion engines which has in recent years attracted increased attention. In CAI combustion, which combines features of spark ignition (SI) and compression ignition (CI) principles, air/fuel mixture is premixed, as in SI combustion and auto-ignited by piston compression as in CI combustion. Ignition is provided in multiple points, and thus the charge gives a simultaneous energy release. This results in uniform and simultaneous auto-ignition and chemical reaction throughout the whole charge without flame propagation. CAI combustion is controlled by the chemical kinetics of air/fuel mixture with no influence of turbulence. The CAI engine offers benefits in comparison to spark ignited and compression ignited engines in higher efficiency due to elimination of throttling losses at part and idle loads. There is a possibility to use high compression ratios since it is not knock limited, and in significant lower NOx emission (≈90%) and particle matter emission (≈50%), due to much lower combustion temperature and elimination of fuel rich zones. However, there are several disadvantages of the CAI engine that limits its practical application, such as high level of hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions, high peak pressures, high rates of heat release, reduced power per displacement and difficulties in starting and controlling the engine. Controlling the operation over a wide range of loads and speeds is probably the major difficulty facing CAI engines. Controlling is actually two-components as it consists of auto-ignition phasing and controlling the rates of heat release. As CAI combustion is controlled by chemical kinetics of air/fuel mixture, the auto-ignition timing and heat release rate are determined by the charge properties such as temperature, composition and pressure. Therefore, changes in engine operational parameters or in types of fuel, results in changing of the charge properties. Hence, the auto-ignition timing and the rate of heat release. The Thesis investigates a controlled auto-ignition (CAI) combustion in internal combustion engines suitable for transport applications. The CAI engine environment is simulated by using a single-zone, homogeneous reactor model with a time variable volume according to the slider-crank relationship. The model uses detailed chemical kinetics and distributed heat transfer losses according to Woschini's correlation [1]. The fundamentals of chemical kinetics, and their relationship with combustion related problems are presented. The phenomenology and principles of auto-ignition process itself and its characteristics in CAI combustion are explained. The simulation model for representing CAI engine environment is established and calibrated with respect to the experimental data. The influences of fuel composition on the auto-ignition timing and the rate of heat release in a CAI engine are investigated. The effects of engine parameters on CAI combustion in different engine concepts fuelled with various fuels are analysed. The effects of internal gas recirculation (IEGR) in controlling the auto-ignition timing and the heat release rate in a CAI engine fuelled with different fuels are investigated. The effects of variable valve timings strategy on gas exchange process in CAI engine fuelled with commercial gasoline (95RON) are analysed.

La préoccupation de plus en plus importante ces dernières décennies, liée à l’épuisement des ressources pétrolières et au réchauffement climatique par les gaz à effet de serre a accentué l’intérêt du butanol comme carburant alternatif dans le secteur des transports grâce à ses propriétés adaptées pour le moteur à allumage par compression. Cependant, le faible rendement des procédés de production et de séparation empêche encore sa commercialisation en tant que carburant. C’est pourquoi le mélange de fermentation intermédiaire de la production de butanol, Acétone-Butanol-Ethanol(ABE), est de plus en plus considéré comme un carburant alternatif potentiel en raison de ses propriétés similaires au butanol et de ses avantages quant à son cout énergétique pour sa fabrication.Dans ce cadre, ce travail a pour objectif d’étudier l’impact des propriétés de différents mélanges d’ABE et n-dodécane en comparaison avec des mélanges d’alcools (éthanol et butanol) sur le processus de pulvérisation et de combustion et ce,pour différentes proportions en volume allant de 20% à 50%. Pour cela, une nouvelle chambre de combustion appelée"New One Shot Engine ", a été réalisée et utilisée car les conditions haute pression et haute température de "Spray-A" (60bars, 800-900 K et 22,8 kg/m³) définies par le réseau Engine Combustion network (ECN) peuvent être atteintes. Autant les phases liquides et vapeur que de combustion ont été caractérisées grâce à l’utilisation des plusieurs techniques optiques (extinction, Schlieren, chimiluminescence d’OH*) dans des conditions non réactives (Azote pur) et réactives (avec15% d'oxygène). Ces résultats expérimentaux ont non seulement permis d’étudier l’impact en oxygène moléculaire et de fournir une nouvelle base de données fiables, mais aussi d’affirmer la possibilité d’utiliser jusque 20% d’ABE en volume dans des moteurs à allumage par compression, grâce à ses caractéristiques de pulvérisation et de combustion similaires au carburant Diesel conventionnel. / The growing concern in recent decades, linked to the depletion of oil resources and global warming by greenhouse gases has increased the interest of butanol as an alternative fuel in the transport sector. However, the low yield of production and separation processes still prevents its commercialization as a fuel. Therefore, the intermediate fermentation mixture of butanol production, Acetone-Butanol-Ethanol (ABE), is increasingly considered as a potential alternative fuel because of its similar properties to butanol and its advantages in terms of the energy and cost in the separation process.The context of this work aims to study the impact of fuel properties on the spray and combustion processes of ABE mixture and alcohol fuels, blended with the diesel surrogate fuel, n-dodecane, in different volume ratio from 20% to 50%. A new combustion chamber called "New One Shot Engine," was designed and developed to reach the high-pressure and high temperatureconditions of "Spray-A" (60 bar, 800-900 K and 22.8 kg/m³) defined by the Engine Combustion Network (ECN).The macroscopic spray and combustion parameters were characterized by using the several optical techniques (extinction,Schlieren, chemiluminescence of OH*) under non-reactive (pure Nitrogen) and reactive (15% of oxygen) conditions. These experimental results not only made it possible to study the molecular oxygen impact and provide a new accurate database,but also to affirm the possibility of using ABE up to 20% by volume in compression-ignition engines, as its spray and combustion characteristics similar to conventional diesel fuel.

Aujourd’hui, les constructeurs automobiles continuent de chercher les technologies renouvelables face à la pénurie d’énergie et les problèmes d’émission de polluants. Un moyen important pour optimiser l’économie de carburant et réduire les émissions polluantes des moteurs à allumage commandés est le concept ‘downsizing’. Cependant, ce concept est limité par le phénomène de cliquetis dû aux conditions de haute température et haut pression. Dans cette étude, le contrôle de la concentration d’oxygène dans l’air est proposé. Car d’une part, la combustion enrichie en oxygène permet d’améliorer la densité de puissance de moteur avec le même niveau de pression d’admission. Cela permet soit de ‘booster’ la combustion pour augmenter la puissance du moteur ou de l’activer lorsque le moteur fonctionne à faible charge ou dans des conditions de démarrage à froid. D’autre part, une faible concentration en oxygène dans l’air (ou dilution de N2) par un système membranaire peut être considérée comme une alternative à la recirculation des gaz d’échappement. Les expériences ont été effectuées dans un moteur monocylindre ‘downsizing’ avec différents taux d’oxygène et richesse. L’étude de l’impact du contrôle de la concentration d’oxygène sur les caractéristiques de combustion et d’émissions a été effectuée pour plusieurs charges en fonctionnement optimum pour limiter la consommation spécifique de carburant. L’effet de la concentration en oxygène sur les caractéristiques de combustion du moteur a été simulé en utilisant le logiciel commercial AMESim avec le modèle de combustion développé par IFP-EN. En mettant en oeuvre des corrélations de la vitesse de combustion laminaire, déterminées au préalable durant ce travail, et délai d’auto-inflammation, les pressions dans les cylindres sont parfaitement calibrés avec une erreur maximale inférieure à 2% et l’intensité du cliquetis a pu être prédite. / Nowadays, car manufacturers continue to lead researches on new technologies facing to the energy shortage and pollutant emission problems. A major way to optimise fuel economy and reduce pollutant emissions for Spark-Ignition (SI) engines is the downsizing concept. However, this concept is unfortunately limited by ‘knock’ phenomena (abnormal combustion) due to high temperature and high pressure in-cylinder conditions. In the present study, control the oxygen concentration in air is proposed. Indeed, on the one hand, oxygen-enriched combustion can improve engine power density with the same intake pressure level. Thus, oxygen-enriched combustion can be used either as a booster to increase engine output or as a combustion enhancer when the engine operates at low loads or in cold start conditions. On the other hand, low oxygen concentration in air (or N2 dilution) can be considered as an alternative to exhaust gas recirculation (EGR). The experiments were carried out in a downsized single-cylinder SI engine with different rates of oxygen and equivalence ratios. The study of the impact of controlling oxygen concentration on the combustion characteristics and emissions was performed at several loads by optimizing the spark advance and the intake pressure to maintain the load and obtain a minimum value of indicated Specific Fuel Consumption (SFC). The effect of oxygen concentration on the engine combustion characteristics was simulated by using the commercial software AMESim, with the combustion model developed by IFP-EN. By implementing correlations for the laminar burning velocity, determined previously during this study, and auto-ignition delay data base, the in-cylinder pressures were perfectly calibrated with a maximum pressure relative error less than 2%, and the knock intensity was predicted.

L'augmentation continue des charges de fonctionnement des moteurs à allumage commandé a conduit à l'apparition d'une nouvelle forme de combustion anormale à bas régime sous la forme d'un pré allumage. Dans des conditions de pression et de température extrêmes, une auto-inflammation incontrôlée du mélange carburé peut en effet se produire avant l'allumage normal à la bougie et conduire à une seconde auto-inflammation de type cliquetis donnant naissance à des oscillations de pression inacceptables même pour les moteurs les plus robustes. Cette anomalie constitue donc une véritable limite au downsizing des moteurs et à l'augmentation de leurs performances spécifiques. Cette dernière forme de combustion anormale est bien plus critique que le cliquetis car son apparition est aléatoire, le plus souvent sporadique et généralement très violente. Ces caractéristiques fondamentales expliquent que de nouveaux outils et de nouvelles méthodologies d'analyse aient dû être développés pour mieux caractériser le processus d'auto-inflammation dans ces conditions extrêmes. Des méthodes statistiques avancées ont notamment été mises au point pour quantifier de manière fiable la fréquence d'apparition du pré allumage malgré son caractère aléatoire. En parallèle, un travail expérimental important a été réalisé pour mettre au point une méthodologie de réalisation de visualisations endoscopiques permettant de mieux analyser le processus de combustion, et d'identifier de manière plus précise les zones préférentielles d'apparition du pré allumage dans la chambre de combustion. Les impacts des paramètres fondamentaux régissant l'auto-inflammation (aérodynamique interne, thermique et chimie du mélange) ont d'abord été analysés sur un monocylindre de recherche. Le processus de combustion a ainsi été détaillé et l'hypothèse d'une auto-inflammation spontanée en phase gazeuse a également pu être abordée en parallèle de l'analyse expérimentale par une approche numérique RANS. Une étude plus approfondie a ensuite montré qu'il était possible qu'un pré allumage conduise à une auto-inflammation de type détonation, ce qui explique qu'un nombre réduit d'occurrences suffise à détériorer irrémédiablement le moteur. La versatilité du monocylindre a également permis de mettre en évidence la diversité des phénomènes qui pouvaient conduire au pré allumage et d'autres hypothèses que celle d'une auto-inflammation spontanée en phase gazeuse ont ainsi pu être formulées. Celles-ci ont finalement été testées sur un multicylindre en appliquant des méthodologies d'essais et d'analyse éprouvées sur monocylindre. Les investigations tournées vers l'impact des réglages moteur ont alors notamment confirmé que les impacts du carburant sur les parois de la chambre de combustion conduisaient à la formation de films liquides dont les caractéristiques locales pouvaient être favorables à une auto-inflammation. / The continuous increase of engine loads on SI engines has provoked the apparition of a new form of abnormal combustion at low engine speed in the guise of a pre-ignition. Under extreme conditions of pressure and temperature, an uncontrolled auto-ignition of the fresh mixture can happen well before the normal ignition at the spark and lead to a knocking-like second auto-ignition and to unacceptable pressure oscillations even for modern and robust engines. This anomaly constitutes thus a strong limit to the downsizing of gasoline engines and to the increase of their specific performance. This latter abnormal combustion is far more critical than knocking combustion since its apparition is random, most often sporadic and usually very violent. These fundamental characteristics explain that new tools and methodologies had to be developed to achieve a better characterization of the auto-ignition process under such extreme conditions. Advanced statistical methods have notably been defined to obtain a reliable quantification of the pre-ignition frequency despite its randomness. A significant work has simultaneously been realized to develop an experimental methodology dedicated to endoscopic visualizations allowing a better analysis of the combustion process and a more precise identification of the preferential areas of auto-ignition inside the combustion chamber. The impacts of fundamental parameters governing auto-ignition (the mixture's charge motion, thermal and chemical evolutions) have first been analyzed thanks to a research single cylinder engine. That way, the combustion process has been detailed and the hypothesis of a spontaneous auto-ignition of the gaseous mixture has also been tackled at the same time with the help of a numerical RANS approach. Then, a deeper analysis has showed that pre-ignition could lead to a developing detonation mode during the second auto-ignition, explaining so that a reduced number of events could cause irremediable damages. Thanks to the flexibility of the single cylinder engine, it has also been shown that a wide variety of phenomena could lead to pre-ignition and it has made possible the formulation of other hypotheses than a spontaneous auto-ignition of the gaseous mixture. These ones have finally been tested on a serial multi-cylinder engine with test and analysis methodologies validated on the single cylinder engine. The investigations focused on the impacts of settings have then confirmed that the fuel impacts on the liner and on the piston lead to the formation of liquid films whose local characteristics could be favorable to auto-ignition.

Commercial fuels are mixtures with large numbers of components. Continuous thermodynamics is a technique for modelling fuel mixtures using a probability density function rather than dealing with each discreet component. The mean and standard deviation of the distribution are then used to model the chemical reactions of the mixture. This thesis develops the necessary theory to apply the technique of continuous thermodynamics to the oxidation reactions of hydrocarbon fuels. The theory is applied to three simplified models of hydrocarbon oxidation: a global one-step reaction, a two-step reaction with CO as the intermediate product, and the four-step reaction of Müller et al. (1992), which contains a high- and a low-temperature branch. These are all greatly simplified models of the complex reaction kinetics of hydrocarbons, and in this thesis they are applied specifically to n-paraffin hydrocarbons in the range from n-heptane to n-hexadecane. The model is tested numerically using a simple constant pressure homogeneous ignition problem using Cantera and compared to simplified and detailed mechanisms for n-heptane. The continuous thermodynamics models are able not only to predict ignition delay times and the development of temperature and species concentrations with time, but also changes in the mixture composition as reaction proceeds as represented by the mean and standard deviation of the distribution function. Continuous thermodynamics is therefore shown to be a useful tool for reactions of multicomponent mixtures, and an alternative to the "surrogate fuel" approach often used at present.