An experimental and kinetic modeling study of JP-10 combustion

This study focuses on the experimental laminar flame speeds and the combustion kinetics of JP-10. Laminar flame speeds of JP-10/air mixtures were measured in a constant volume combustion bomb at a temperature of 420 K, with the pressure of 0.1 and 0.3 MPa and the equivalence ratio of 0.7–1.3. A chemical kinetic model of JP-10 combustion consisting of 189 species and 1287 reactions was developed and was validated using the laminar flame speeds measured here and many literature data (including the ignition delay times and the species files of JP-10 oxidation in a shock tube). The model developed in this work is the combination of a JP-10 sub-mechanism and a core mechanism. Based on the detailed mechanisms developed by Gao et al. and Vandewiele et al., the JP-10 sub-mechanism consisting of 38 species ≥ C5 was developed by path flux analysis and lumping methods. The core mechanism is an extension of the USC MECH II mechanism developed by Wang et al., in which the sub-mechanisms of cyclopentene and benzene taken from other references were added. To further understand the combustion characteristics, kinetic analyses were carried out using the model developed in this work. Results show that the decomposition pathways of the initial products mainly generate the small molecules (e.g., methyl, ethene, allyl), the cyclic C5 alkenes represented by cyclopentene and cyclopentadiene, and the aromatics represented by benzene and toluene. Sensitivity analyses show that each decomposition pathway has a different effect on the global reaction rate because of their different tendencies to generate reactive and resonance stabilized radicals.