Experimental study of ethanol oxidation behind reflected shock waves: Ignition delay time and H2O laser-absorption measurements

Abstract

The oxidation of ethanol was investigated in shock tubes by measuring ignition delay times and water time history profiles. A laser absorption technique was used in the latter case. Ignition delay times were investigated for three equivalence ratios, 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0, and for pressures ranging from 1.3 to 53 atm. The fuel concentration and the type of diluent used were also varied. The ignition delay times were in very good agreement with results from the literature for the very few overlapping conditions, and most of the experimental conditions have never been studied before. A high level of accuracy was observed for the predictions of the ignition delay times from detailed kinetics mechanisms. Inhomogeneous ignition events were observed in some specific conditions, validating the notions of thermal diffusivity and flame thickness developed in the literature for the reasons behind such inhomogeneous ignition. The water time-history profiles showed the formation of water in two stages. These profiles were also modeled using well-known detailed kinetic mechanisms from the literature. Severe discrepancies were often observed for laser-absorption measurements, and this was the case with most of the models. A numerical analysis (sensitivity and rate-of-production) was conducted using the two best-performing literature mechanisms (namely, AramcoMech3.0 and CRECK).