a measure of the ignition quality of a diesel engine fuel by comparison with various mixtures in which the alpha form of methylnaphthalene is given a standard value of 0 and cetane is given a standard value of 100.
Also called cetane rating.
Origin
1930-35
Examples from the web for cetane number
The cetane index is derived from a formula for estimating the cetane number of diesel fuel.
Important characteristics of diesel fuels are its viscosity, pour point, and cetane number.
The cetane number of liquid products showed similar results.
SG is generally correlated against performance indicators such as cetane number and heating value.
The cetane number indicates the combustion quality of the diesel fuel during compression ignition.
In contrast, increasing unsaturation rapidly lowers the cetane number.
The cetane number is a dimensionless descriptor of the ignition quality of a diesel fuel.
cetane number is significantly higher than that of conventional diesel fuel.
These properties were sulfur, cetane number, and ash.
British Dictionary definitions for cetane number
cetane number
noun
1.
a measure of the quality of a diesel fuel expressed as the percentage of cetane in a mixture of cetane and 1-methylnapthalene of the same quality as the given fuel Also called cetane rating Compare octane number