Experimental and kinetic modeling study of benzene and toluene combustion in premixed, laminar and one-dimensional flames
(2011)
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- (en) Flames that have an excess of fuel, compared to the stoichiometry, or where the mixing between fuel and oxidizer is imperfect, result in an incomplete combustion. The excess of fuel is principally converted into Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH), which are molecular precursors of soot. In addition to the carcinogenic hazard of PAH, soot promotes the atmospheric solar heating or causes the coating of combustion chambers in the industry. It is therefore very important to understand mechanisms involved in the chemistry of soot formation. Such a comprehension is the main goal of this work investigating chemical pathways involved in benzene and toluene flames. One-dimensional, premixed and laminar benzene-oxygen-argon and toluene-oxygen-argon flames have been stabilized at different equivalence ratios and at low pressure on a flat flame burner. Experimental structures have been determined by Gas Chromatography, enabling the detection of major products of combustion, small hydrocarbon intermediates and chemical species from C6Hx to first PAH. Molecular Beam Mass Spectrometry has been used to detect chemical species of interest that could not be followed by Gas Chromatography. These species include the phenoxy radical, the benzoquinone, the benzyl radical and the fulvenallene, which are all thought to be important intermediates of benzene and toluene combustion. Finally, a device has been developed for the measurement of soot concentration in rich hydrocarbon flames. A detailed kinetic model for the aromatic consumption and the soot formation has been developed on the basis of a comprehensive literature survey. The good predictive capability of the proposed model has been verified by comparing its predictions to the experimental flame structures. Comparative reaction rate analyses have been carried out to determine the main reaction pathways occurring in aromatic flames. The comprehensive experimental and kinetic modeling studies presented in this work improve the current understanding of aromatic flame chemistry, and will help the future works devoted to aromatic oxidation, as well as those on PAH and soot formation.
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Detilleux, V. (2011). Experimental and kinetic modeling study of benzene and toluene combustion in premixed, laminar and one-dimensional flames. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/151297