in this paper fuels, based on various DME to diesel ratios are investigated. Physical and chemical properties of DME and diesel display mutual solubility at any ratio. The vapor pressure of DME/diesel blends is lower than that of pure DME at the same temperatures and it decreases with an increase of diesel mass fraction in blends, which is beneficial to the elimination of vapor lock in the fuel supply system on CI engines. Performance, emission and other features of three kinds of DME/diesel blend fuels and diesels are evaluated in a four-cylinder test engine. By taking relative advantages of DME and diesel, the DME/diesel blends could achieve satisfactory properties in lubricity and atomization, which contributed to improvements in spray and combustion characteristics. Simultaneously, smoke emission could be reduced significantly with a little penalty on CO and HC emissions for DME/diesel blended engine at high loads, in comparison to diesel engine. NOx emissions of the engine powered by DME/diesel blends are decreased somewhat. Moreover, the power output would be improved a little and NOx emission could be reduced further if the fuel supply advance angle is retarded appropriately. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.