Kinetics of Soot Oxidation by Molecular Oxygen in a Premixed Flame

Abstract

In this study, a two-stage burner was used to determine kinetic parameters of soot oxidation by molecular oxygen. The two-stage burner technique produced soot particles from different fuels in the first burner and then oxidized the particles under either fuel lean or rich conditions in the secondary burner. Methyl decanoate/n-dodecane (surrogate for biodiesel/diesel) and n-butanol/n-dodecane (alcohol/diesel) were studied and compared with previous results using pure m-xylene, pure n-dodecane, and m-xylene/n-dodecane mixtures (surrogate for conventional jet fuel (JP-8)). Particle size distributions, determined using samples taken from the center line of the secondary burner and characterized by a scanning mobility particle sizer, were used to determine the experimental oxidation rates. The evolution of major gas-phase species was measured experimentally by an online GC, and kinetic modeling was used to predict the concentration of OH radicals. The results revealed two regions in the flame: (i) a region clo...