Laminar burning velocities and nitric oxide formation in premixed dimethyl ether/air flames: Experiments and kinetic modeling

Abstract

Adiabatic laminar burning velocities and post-flame NO mole fractions for flat, non-stretched, premixed dimethyl ether/air flames were experimentally determined with a heat flux burner combined with laser-induced fluorescence diagnostics, over equivalence ratios ranging from 0.7 to 1.6, at atmospheric pressure and initial temperatures from 298 to 338 K. The present burning velocity measurements were then compared with selected data available in the literature obtained with different techniques. The comparison showed reasonably good agreement with recent datasets obtained at different temperatures, as well as possible outliers not suitable for the validation of kinetic models. The detailed kinetic mechanism of the authors was extended by the reactions of dimethyl ether. A comparison of experimental and computational results using two contemporary detailed chemical kinetic mechanisms, along with the one from the authors presented in this work, was also conducted and discussed. Discrepancies between experiments and model predictions and among models themselves were observed, especially under rich conditions. Further numerical analyzes were performed to identify the main causes of the observed differences. Notwithstanding, the present model showed overall good performances in reproducing both laminar burning velocities and nitric oxide mole fractions. Kinetic modeling was also performed to enhance the understanding of the intrinsic NOx emission characteristics of dimethyl ether by comparing the present measurements with those obtained for ethanol/air flames under identical conditions.