Gas-phase autoignition, a fundamental indicator of fuel reactivity, and its underlying reaction kinetics are of importance to the operation of gas turbine and internal combustion engines, particularly in advanced engine concepts where kinetics may play a more important role than in legacy designs. The increasing significance of kinetics in modern engine operation and the rapid development of alternative fuels motivates an understanding of reaction kinetics and in particular the influence of fuel structure on oxidation and autoignition. A series of shock tube autoignition studies have been carried for pure fuel components found in conventional and alternative transportation fuels over the last five years. Results of these studies are summarized here. Measurements have been made for compounds found in or relevant to conventional gasoline, diesel, and jet fuels and alternative fuels including biodiesels, Fischer-Tropsch fuels, and hydroprocessed renewable fuels. Experiments were carried out for gaseous fuel/air mixtures in a heated shock tube facility. Fuel/air mixtures were studied for rich to lean conditions at high pressures (10–60 atm) and for a large range of temperatures spanning three distinct regions of reactivity from the high-temperature Arrhenius region, through the negative-temperature-coefficient region, and into the low-temperature region. The experimental results provide fundamental information about the structure-reactivity relationships for fuels and targets for the development of fuel oxidation kinetic models.
Investigation of ethane pyrolysis and oxidation at high pressures using global optimization based on shock tube data
