Multi-dimensional models were coupled with a detailed chemical mechanism to investigate the energy and exergy distributions of three different combustion regimes in internal combustion engines. The results indicate that the 50% heat release point (CA50) considerably affects fuel efficiency and ringing intensity (RI), in which RI is used to quantify the knock level. Moreover, the burn duration from the 10% heat release point (CA10) to CA50 dominates RI, and the position of 90% heat release point (CA90) affects fuel efficiency. The heat transfer losses of conventional diesel combustion (CDC) strongly depend on the local temperature gradient, while it is closely related to the heat transfer area for homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) and reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI). Among the three combustion regimes, CDC has the largest utilization efficiency for heat transfer and exhaust energy due to its higher temperature in the heat transfer layer and higher exhaust pressure and temperature. The utilization efficiency of heat transfer and exhaust in RCCI is less affected by the variation of CA50 compared to those in CDC and HCCI. Exergy destruction is closely related to the homogeneity of in cylinder temperature and equivalence ratio during combustion process, the combustion temperature, the chemical reaction rate, and the combustion duration. Under the combined effect, HCCI and RCCI demonstrate lower exergy destruction than CDC at the same load. Overall, the variations of the exergy distribution for the three combustion regimes obtained from the second law of thermodynamics are consistent with those from the first law of thermodynamics. HCCI demonstrates the highest energy and exergy efficiency, and CDC performs the worst. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.