Comparative Study on Autoignition Characteristics of

Article
pubs.acs.org/EF
Comparative Study on Autoignition Characteristics
of Methylcyclohexane and Cyclohexane
Zemin Tian, Yingjia Zhang,* Feiyu Yang, and Zuohua Huang*
State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, Shaanxi 710049, People’s Republic
of China
S Supporting Information
*
ABSTRACT: Ignition delay times were measured behind reflected shock waves for cyclohexane and methylcyclohexane at
pressures of 1.1, 5.0, and 16.0 atm, temperatures from 1075 to 1750 K, and equivalence ratios of 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0. Correlations of
the ignition delay times were performed at the three equivalence ratios in Arrhenius form. Measured ignition delay times showed
fairly good agreements with previous data. Several accepted mechanisms (JetSurF 2.0, Wang et al., Sirjean et al., Orme et al., and
Silke et al.) were used to simulate the experimental measurements and conduct flux analyses and sensitivity analyses. Comparisons of the simulations and analyses between the mechanisms give insights into the oxidation of methylcyclohexane and
cyclohexane. Methylcyclohexane has an evidently longer ignition delay time than cyclohexane at ϕ = 0.5, while its ignition delay
time becomes comparative to those of cyclohexane at ϕ = 1.0. Chemical kinetic interpretation is given for this observation.
1. INTRODUCTION
Numerous studies on ignition and oxidation of naphthenes
have been carried out in various conventional experimental
approaches, such as a rapid compression machine (RCM),
shock tube, and jet-stirred reactor (JSR). A significant motivation is that naphthenes are important chemical components in
practical fuels. Diesel fuel, for instance, contains cyclic alkanes
up to 40% by weight.1,2 Particularly, Canadian oilseed-derived
fuels have a higher concentration of them.3 Besides, naphthenes
are able to raise the formation of the aromatic pollutants and
the soot emission.
Specially, cyclohexane (CH) and methylcyclohexane (MCH)
have received much attention. Numerous experimental investigations were performed. Serinyel et al.4 tested main products
for CH at atmospheric pressure with temperatures of 500−
1100 K and ϕ = 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 in a JSR. A new mechanism
was developed to well reproduce the experimental results.
Wang et al.5 identified more than 30 intermediate species for
the pyrolysis of CH at a temperature from 950 to 1520 K.
Daley et al.6 measured the ignition time of the CH/air mixture
at equivalence ratios of 1.0, 0.5, and 0.25, pressures of 15.0 and
50.0 atm, and temperatures ranging from 847 to 1379 K. In
addition, a recent experimental and modeling study was made
by Pitz et al.7 to track the main products of aromatics, cyclic
species, and soot precursors in a MCH flame. Mittal et al.8
investigated the autoignition of MCH in a RCM at equivalence
ratios of 0.5−2.0 and pressures of 15.1 and 25.5 atm with
temperatures from 680 to 905 K. Vasu et al.9 measured the
ignition delay times for MCH at ϕ = 1.0 with the pressures of
20 and 45 atm, covering temperatures over 795−1100 K.
Vanderover and Oehlschlaeger10 obtained ignition delay times
for MCH in a shock tube at temperatures ranging from 881 to
1319 K for equivalence ratios of 0.25, 0.5, and 1.0.
Furthermore, many acceptable mechanisms have been developed for CH. Buda et al.11 developed a model of CH oxidation containing 513 species and 2446 reactions in the aid of a
© 2015 American Chemical Society
computer program. This model well reproduced the ignition
delay times obtained in a RCM at temperatures of 650−950 K
and pressures of 7−14 atm and the profiles of products measured in a JSR from 750 to 1050 K at 10 atm from published
literature.12 With the help of a computer package, which can
automatically generate a kinetic mechanism and quantum
chemical calculations, Sirjean et al.13 made a kinetic mechanism
of 372 species and 1629 reactions for CH. They measured the
ignition delay time for CH/O2/Ar mixtures containing 0.5 or 1%
fuel at temperatures from 1230 to 1840 K, pressures of 7.3−9.5 atm,
and equivalence ratios of 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 to validate their
model. Besides, Wang et al.14 built a kinetic model to simulate
their results of pyrolysis of CH in a plug flow reactor. Over 30
species, including radicals and stable intermediate products,
were identified at 0.04 atm with temperatures from 950 to 1520 K.
As for MCH, there are mechanisms available as well. Orme
et al.15 assembled a chemical mechanism of MCH oxidation
based on the previous reaction scheme16 using the rules for
reaction rate constants provided by Curran et al.17,18 The
simulations by this model for the ignition delay times for
MCH/O2/Ar mixtures at 1−4 atm, 1200−2000 K, and ϕ = 0.5,
1.0, and 2.0 and the species profiles at 1 atm and 1058−1092 K
agreed well with the experimental results. Pitz et al.7 combined
new low-temperature chemistry with Orme’s mechanism to
create a new kinetic model for MCH, which was used to predict
the ignition delay times for the stoichiometric mixture of MCH/O2
and three diluents (100% Ar, 100% N2, and 100% N2) at 10, 15,
and 20 atm with temperatures ranging from 650 to 1000 K. The
predictions were in fairly good consistency with the experimental results obtained in a RCM. Additionally, Wang et al.14
built a kinetic model with 249 species and 1570 reactions for
MCH. They validated their mechanism with pyrolysis and
Received: December 4, 2014
Revised: March 18, 2015
Published: March 18, 2015
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Energy & Fuels
flame intermediates measured in their experiment and data
from the literature.
One goal of this work is to further validate these enormous
mechanisms for CH and MCH with ignition delay time measured in a shock tube. By analyzing the similarity and difference
among the mechanisms, we aim to deepen the understanding of
oxidation of CH and MCH and to assess the performances of
different mechanisms. In addition, the comparison in ignition
delay time between CH and MCH is also useful to understand
the oxidation chemistry. Hong et al.19 compared ignition delay
time among CH, MCH, and n-butylcyclohexane (BCH). It is
found that MCH has a longer ignition delay time than CH.
They suggested that the unique molecular structure of CH
significantly facilitates the regeneration of the H radical,
accounting for the higher activity of CH oxidation. However,
the influences of physical characteristics, such as equivalence
ratio, pressure, and temperature, were not reported. In this
work, the effect of the equivalence ratio on the comparison is
investigated. To compare performances of acceptable oxidation
mechanisms of CH and MCH and to discuss the influence of
equivalence ratios, a wide range of ignition delay times were
measured for CH and MCH in a high-temperature shock tube.
For CH, measurements were carried out at the equivalence
ratios of 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 and the pressures of 1.1 and 5.0 atm,
with fuel mole fractions of 0.5% (for ϕ = 0.5 and 1.0) and 1.0%
(for ϕ = 2.0), with temperatures ranging from 1075 to 1750 K.
In addition, the tested pressure was extended to 16 atm for the
case of ϕ = 1.0. The tested conditions for MCH are identical to
those for CH, except that the ignition delay time of another
mixture of 1% MCH/10.5% O2/88.5% Ar was measured to
compare to published data.
Table 1. List of Detailed Compositions of Fuel Mixtures for
Both CH and MCH
mix
number
ϕ
CH (%)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
0.5
1.0
2.0
0.5
1.0
1.0
2.0
0.5
0.5
1.0
MCH (%)
O2 (%)
Ar (%)
0.5
0.5
1.0
1.0
9
4.5
4.5
10.5
5.25
10.5
5.25
90.5
95
94.5
89
94.25
88.5
93.75
P (atm)
1.1,
1.1,
1.1,
1.1,
1.1,
1.0
1.1,
5.0
5.0, 16.0
5.0
5.0
5.0, 16.0
5.0
Figure 1. Typical profile of endwall pressure and OH* emission time
histories recorded during a CH ignition experiment at ϕ = 1.0, 1250 K,
and 16.0 atm. The definition of ignition delay time is presented in this
figure.
2. EXPERIMENTAL SECTION
The measurements were performed in a shock tube with a 4.0 m
driver and 5.3 m driven section, separated by a double polycarbonate
diaphragm. A photomultiplier (Hamamatsu, CR131) is installed at the
endwall to capture the chemiluminescence emission of OH*. Four
pressure transducers (PCB 113B26) are located along the end part of
the driven section at a constant distance to measure local incident
shock wave velocities. An additional pressure transducer (PCB
113B03) is fixed at the endwall to obtain the shockwave pressure
there. The temperature of the reflected shockwave is calculated with
the local shockwave velocities, with the help of the reflected shock
model in the software Gaseq.20 A detailed description has been made
in previous studies.21,22 Helium and nitrogen of 99.999% purity were
proportionately mixed as driving gas, which was charged into the
driver section of the shock tube.
Test mixtures were prepared in a 128 L stainless-steel tank. The
fuels (CH and MCH) with purities of 98% were injected, and then
oxygen and diluent (argon) are manometrically charged into the tank.
At least 12 h of blending allowed the mixture to reach homogeneity.
The purities oxygen and argon were 99.995%. The partial pressure of
fuels was ensured below a half of the vapor pressure (13 kPa for CH
and 5.3 kPa for MCH) to minimize the possibility of condensation.
The detailed compositions of the tested mixtures are listed in Table 1.
Figure 1 shows a typical profile of endwall pressure and OH*
emission obtained in a CH ignition experiment. The definition of
ignition delay time in this study is provided. It is the interval between
the arrival of the incident shock wave at the endwall and the extrapolation of the steepest rise in the endwall OH* chemiluminescence signal
to the zero baseline. The largest uncertainty of ignition delay time is
estimated as 15%, and the error bars are added in Figures 4 and 5. The
detail of determination is given in the Supporting Information.
Numerical simulations of ignition delay time are carried out using
Senkin code23 in the Chemkin II package.24 The onset of ignition in
the simulation is defined as the maximum rate of temperature rise
(dT/dt)max. There is little difference in the ignition delay times
calculated on the basis of these two definitions.
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.1. Correlation and Comparison to Previous Data.
Table 2 shows all of the measured data in this study. They can
be correlated for the three equivalence ratios using an Arrhenius
formula:25 τ = Ap−n exp(Ea/RT), where τ is the ignition delay
time in microseconds, p is the reflected shock pressure in atmospheres, T is the temperature in kelvins, R is the universal gas
constant of 1.986 × 10−3 kcal mol−1 K−1, and Ea is the activation energy in kilocalories. The results are shown as follows.
For CH
ϕ = 0.5:
τ = 7.67 × 10−4p−0.58 exp(34.2/RT )
(1)
ϕ = 1.0:
τ = 3.11 × 10−3p−0.59 exp(32.8/RT )
(2)
ϕ = 2.0:
τ = 4.87 × 10−2p−0.58 exp(26.7/RT )
(3)
ϕ = 0.5:
τ = 7.86 × 10−4p−0.51 exp(35.0/RT )
(4)
ϕ = 1.0:
τ = 1.91 × 10−3p−0.59 exp(34.7/RT )
(5)
ϕ = 2.0:
τ = 1.19 × 10−2p−0.61 exp(31.0/RT )
(6)
For MCH
It can be seen that only an ignorable change of pressure-scaling
parameters is observed as the equivalence ratio changes for CH,
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Table 2. Measured Ignition Delay Times of (a) CH and (b) MCH Mixtures (Table 1) in Units of atm, K, and μs for p, T, and τ
(a) CH
mixture 1
mixture 2
mixture 2
mixture 3
p
T
τ
p
T
τ
p
T
τ
p
T
τ
1.06
1.06
1.08
1.08
1.04
1.08
1.08
0.97
1.06
5.01
5.10
5.07
5.06
5.00
4.98
4.96
5.09
1321
1387
1477
1537
1236
1191
1137
1456
1290
1352
1447
1281
1199
1112
1072
1279
1157
283
207
78
56
876
1570
2569
116
437
82
37
270
544
1604
2247
244
1049
1.09
1.09
1.06
1.05
1.09
1.03
1.08
1.08
1.00
1.07
1.07
4.99
5.07
4.96
5.17
4.97
5.14
1262
1331
1379
1447
1568
1165
1231
1274
1533
1618
1476
1377
1299
1201
1159
1470
1568
1575
702
460
255
112
3457
2017
1417
128
78
278
184
455
1168
2095
76
39
5.11
5.13
5.07
16.2
14.0
15.1
15.7
16.4
16.8
16.3
15.9
15.7
15.7
1267
1333
1451
1355
1184
1268
1403
1247
1280
1144
1239
1295
1521
618
351
98
112
572
249
83
368
278
877
369
222
32
1.10
1.07
1.02
1.13
1.09
0.99
1.00
1.09
1.05
4.95
5.17
5.05
5.09
5.01
5.01
5.12
5.14
5.11
1379
1481
1551
1773
1646
1240
1210
1341
1302
1310
1432
1506
1586
1247
1175
1137
1385
1225
885
449
329
72
159
2059
2335
1242
1714
610
228
127
84
904
1782
2507
317
1160
τ
p
T
τ
1404
1493
1243
1254
1179
1137
1326
1285
1188
97
47
532
451
962
1346
179
398
816
mixture 6
1254.1
1307.5
1358.3
1439.7
1502.5
1545
1404.9
1407.1
1386.2
1448.1
1508
1014
619
263
137
106
270
308
409
226
1.04
1.05
1.13
1.10
1.12
1.04
1.09
1.07
1.04
1.09
1.06
1.00
5.33
5.12
5.08
5.14
4.89
5.30
5.10
5.16
5.11
1381
1503
1691
1724
1663
1440
1338
1291
1530
1620
1258
1243
1282
1190
1129
1242
1287
1441
1500
1586
1357
944
435
106
117
111
617
1531
1921
328
173
2543
3189
1047
2175
3635
1536
859
229
135
65
464
(b) MCH
mixture 4
mixture 5
mixture 5
p
T
τ
p
T
τ
p
1.08
1.10
1.05
1.08
1.05
1.09
1.05
1.09
1.07
1.10
1.09
1.05
4.75
5.09
5.10
4.94
5.08
4.97
5.12
1334
1418
1453
1546
1481
1536
1236
1150
1175
1309
1525
1343
1306
1227
1148
1075
1435
1377
1122
483
189
130
50
125
61
1270
3124
2403
705
73
380
286
745
1739
2905
70
124
2256
1.10
1.10
1.06
1.12
1.13
1.08
1.06
1.08
1.04
1.10
1.08
1.04
5.09
4.89
5.04
5.05
5.31
5.11
4.95
4.96
5.12
5.08
15.2
14.8
14.0
1264
1327
1366
1479
1546
1196
1270
1416
1510
1615
1242
1577
1307
1348
1225
1439
1552
1149
1370
1251
1481
1184
1358
1212
1203
1734
1156
713
242
125
3208
1941
449
207
78
2191
96
554
267
1554
140
54
2943
262
981
87
2216
170
563
461
14.8
15.9
17.6
16.7
16.0
16.7
15.8
15.8
15.5
1.13
1.09
1.08
1.21
1.02
1.18
1.03
1.17
1.17
1.02
T
mixture 7
longer ignition delay times (ϕ = 2.0) than fuel presented at ϕ = 1.0,
which inclines to approach the ignition delay time at ϕ = 1.0 when
the temperature drops, as shown in Figure 2. Just as stated by
Curran et al.,18 reaction H + O2 ⇄ OH + H dominants the
ignition at a high temperature, while reactions related to the
HO2 radical become prominent at a low temperature and high
pressure. Therefore, the reactivity of oxidation is favored by a
high concentration of fuel as the temperature falls.
Extensive measurements of the ignition delay time of CH
and MCH have been conducted in shock tubes. Hong et al.19
but the pressure-scaling factor increases with the increase in
the equivalence ratio for MCH. This is different from the
observation by Daley et al.6 for CH/air ignition and by
Vanderover and Oehlschlaeger10 for MCH/air. They reported
that the dependence of pressure declined from 0.99 at ϕ = 1.0
to 0.66 at ϕ = 0.25. This reason is that a high fuel concentration
can promote the global reactivity and enhance the pressure
dependence of ignition delay time. Additionally, the activation
energy at ϕ = 2.0 is obviously lower than that at ϕ = 1.0 and
0.5, especially for CH. Generally, the fuel-rich mixture exhibits
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Figure 2. Experimental measurements and correlations of CH at
ϕ = 1.0 and 2.0 and p = 1.1 and 5.0 atm. Solid lines, correlation;
symbols, measurements.
provided the data of ignition delay times of CH, MCH, and
BCH at 1.5 and 3.0 atm and equivalence ratios near 1.0 and
0.5 with a fixed O2 concentration of 4%, in a temperature range
of 1280−1480 K. Although there is a slight difference in
test conditions, the current experiments of CH and MCH at
1.1 atm and ϕ = 1.0 were compared to those of Hong et al. at
1.5 atm and ϕ = 1.0, as shown in Figure 3a. It can be seen
that both of them are concordant quite well, although a slightly
higher ignition delay time at high temperatures in this work is
observed. Orme et al.15 developed and validated a new hightemperature mechanism of MCH using the ignition delay
times of 1.0% MCH/O2/Ar at 1.0−4.0 atm and ϕ = 0.5−2.0.
Figure 3b depicts the comparison of ignition delay time data
between the current study and Orme et al.15 near 1.0 atm for
MCH/O2/Ar mixtures. As expected, the fairly good agreements
are seen again. In addition, Sirjean et al.13 also measured ignition delay time for 0.5% CH/O2/Ar mixtures at 7.3−9.5 atm and
ϕ = 0.5−2.0 to validate their CH oxidation mechanism. Unlike the
direct comparison to the data of Hong et al. and Orme et al., we
use expressions 1 and 2 to scale the data of this study at an average
pressure of 8.4 atm to compare to those of Sirjean et al., as shown
in Figure 3c. Although two sets of data show similar dependence
of ignition on the temperature and global activation energy, there
is a large discrepancy in ignition delay times between them. This
may be caused by some different experimental conditions.
3.2. Comparison to Mechanism Predictions. Various
kinetic models have been developed for CH and MCH, and
they can perform fairly good predictions on the ignition and
oxidation of CH and MCH. However, these kinetic mechanisms provide different interpretation on the details of dissociation of CH and MCH, causing different predictions of
ignition delay time. In this study, the simulations are conducted
for CH and MCH using several mechanisms, and further
chemical analyses are then performed to deeply understand the
oxidation process of CH and MCH. The following five
mechanisms are considered: (1) JetSurF 2.0,26 developed by
Wang et al. at University of Southern California, consists of 346
species and 2163 reactions. It is available for not only CH and
MCH but also ethylcyclohexane (ECH), n-propylcyclohexane
(PCH), and BCH because of comprehensive submechanisms
of alkanes included in it. This mechanism is used to simulate
ignition delay times of both CH and MCH. (2) Wang et al.
Figure 3. Comparison between the measured and previous data: (a)
data for CH and MCH to those from Hong et al. at about 1.5 atm and
ϕ = 1.0, (b) data for MCH to those from Orme et al. at 1 atm and
ϕ = 1.0 and 2.0, and (c) correlation using current data to data from
Sirjean et al. at about 8.4 atm and ϕ = 0.5 and 1.0.
mechanism,14 constructed using a high level of quantum
calculation, has 1570 reactions and 249 species. It is used for
prediction of ignition delay times of MCH and CH. (3) Sirjean
et al. mechanism,13 which is created with the help of EXGAS
software, is adopted for CH simulation. (4) Orme et al. mechanism,15 including 190 species and 904 reactions, is made with
an analogy method for high-temperature oxidation of MCH.
Here, it is employed to simulate MCH ignition. (5) Finally,
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Figure 5. Ignition delay times for MCH/O2/Ar mixtures and predictions using JetSurF2.0,26 Silke et al.,27 Wang et al.,14 and Orme et al.13
mechanisms: (a) ϕ = 1.0, XMCH = 0.5%, and p = 1.1, 5.0, and 16 atm;
(b) p = 1.1 atm: ϕ = 0.5, XMCH = 0.5%; ϕ = 2.0, XMCH = 1%; and (c)
p = 5.0 atm: ϕ = 0.5, XMCH = 0.5%; ϕ = 2.0, XMCH = 1%.
Figure 4. Ignition delay times for CH/O2/Ar mixtures and predictions
using JetSurF 2.0,26 Wang et al.,14 and Sirjean et al.13 mechanisms: (a)
ϕ = 1.0, XCH = 0.5%, and p = 1.1, 5.0, and 16 atm; (b) p = 1.1 atm:
ϕ = 0.5, XCH = 0.5%; ϕ = 2.0, XCH = 1%; and (c) p = 5.0 atm: ϕ = 0.5,
XCH = 0.5%; ϕ = 2.0, XCH = 1%.
Silke et al.27 extend the MCH oxidation mechanism to low
temperature and achieved a model of 1081 species and 4267
reactions. They also used the experimental data from the study
of Lemaire et al.12 to test their model. This mechanism is used
for MCH simulation here. In consideration of the non-ideal
facility effect on ignition delay time, an average of 4.0% pressure
rise rate is taken into account in all of the simulations using
SENKIN/VTIM approach.28
Figure 4 shows the measured ignition delay times for CH/
O2/Ar mixtures at pressures of 1.1−16.0 atm and equivalence
ratios of 0.5−2.0. The simulations were performed using three
mechanisms: JetSurF 2.0,26 Wang et al. mechanism,14 and
Sirjean et al. mechanism.13
It is seen that JetSurF 2.0 and Wang et al. mechanisms
perform approximately good predictions under the tested
conditions. However, the prediction of the Sirjean et al.
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Figure 6. Comparison of ignition delay times between CH and MCH
mixtures at p = 5 atm and ϕ = 0.5 and 2.0.
mechanism exhibits an evident deviation with those of other
mechanisms as the temperatures decrease, especially for the
fuel-lean mixture and high pressure. For instance, at 1180 K,
the Sirjean et al. mechanism overpredicts the ignition delay
time by 40% at 1.1 atm and 108% at 16 atm for the fuelstoichiometric mixture and by 40% at 1.1 atm and 102% at
5.0 atm for the fuel-lean mixture. It means that a high pressure
and high oxygen concentration tend to worsen the prediction
of the Sirjean et al. mechanism. The difference in some
important fuel-related reactions should be responsible for the
deviation and will be discussed below.
Figure 5 compares the measured ignition delay times to the
model simulation for MCH mixtures under similar test conditions to those used for CH mixtures. Four mechanisms are
employed here. They are JetSurF 2.0,26 Silke et al.,27 Wang
et al.,14 and Orme et al.15 mechanisms. It is found that all of
them present good performance on modeling the experimental
data under current test conditions. Because the MCH submechanism in the Silke et al. mechanism at a high temperature
is identical to that of Orme et al., these two mechanisms
represent quite similar simulations, especially at p = 5.0 atm, as
shown in panels b and c of Figure 5. However, owing to the
difference in reactions of small radicals, a higher prediction of
the Silke et al. mechanism than that of the Orme et al. mechanism is observed at p = 1.1 atm. As for JetSurF2.0, while it can
reproduce the experimental data at 1.1 and 5.0 atm for fuel-rich
and -stoichiometric mixtures, underprediction is seen at
16.0 atm and fuel-lean mixtures.
To clarify the quantitative difference of autoignition behavior
between CH and MCH, we compare the ignition delay time of
CH and MCH mixtures at equivalence ratios of 0.5 and 2.0 and
pressure of 5.0 atm, as shown in Figure 6. The result indicates
that MCH shows a distinctly longer ignition delay time than
CH for fuel-lean conditions, whereas the ignition delay time of
MCH becomes much closer to those of CH for fuel-rich
conditions, even at the same temperature.
3.3. Flux Analysis. Flux analyses of CH and MCH oxidation were conducted at p = 5.0 atm, T = 1250 and 1450 K, and
ϕ = 0.5 after 20% fuel consumption, as shown in Figures 7 and 8.
The percentages of contribution to the consumption of the
species on the source side of the arrow are determined by the
ratio of the reaction rate of a certain pathway to the total consumption rate of this species at the moment of 20% fuel consumption. For CH, three mechanisms, JetSurF2.0,26 Wang et al.,14
Figure 7. Flux analyses for CH using Wang et al.,14 Sirjean et al.,13 and
JetSurF2.026 mechanisms: ϕ = 0.5, p = 5.0 atm, and T = 1250 and
1450 K. Numbers are percent contribution to the consumption of the
species on the source side of the arrow.
and Sirjean et al.13 mechanisms, were used to detail the reaction
pathway, as shown in Figure 7. Initially, the CH molecule
decomposes via unimolecular dissociation of the ring-opening
reaction to form 1-hexene or biradical hex-1,6-yl or via
H-abstraction to form cyclohexyl radicals. The cyclohexyl
radical is then broken down to form a chain alkyl radical
(1-hexen-6-yl) via the ring-opening reaction or produce a
cyclohexene and a H radical via C−H cleavage. Subsequently,
the 1-hexen-6-yl radicals are rapidly consumed according to two
reaction pathways as follows: One is the formation reaction of
the ethyl (C2H5) radical and 1,3-butadiene (C4H6) via
β-scission. Another one is the formation reaction of the
n-butenyl (C4H7) radical and ethylene (C2H4) via first
isomerization and then β-scission. It is well-known that the
C2H5 radical and C4H7 radical are important precursors of the
H radical, and thus, their production can promote ignition. In
general, JetSurF2.0 and Wang et al. mechanisms perform good
agreement. For these two mechanisms, the majority of CH
molecules are consumed by H-abstraction and each pathway
contributes to essentially the same percentage for the consumption of species. In contrast, the Sirjean et al. mechanism
presents a clear difference. The unimolecular decomposition
of CH leads to f biradical according to the Sirjean et al.
mechanism, while 1-hexene is generated according to the other
two mechanisms. It should be noted that 14% of CH molecules
consumed by unimolecular decomposition using the Sirjean
et al. mechanism is considerably larger than that using other
mechanisms at 1450 K, such as more than 15% of the consumption pathway of cyclohexyl radicals via C−H cleavage in
the Sirjean et al. mechanism compared to the other two
mechanisms. Nevertheless, the differences are not the main
reasons causing the obviously different predictions of ignition
delay time using the Sirjean et al. mechanism (Figure 4c).
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Figure 8. Flux analyses for MCH using Wang et al.,14 Sirjean et al.,13 and JetSurF 2.026 mechanisms: ϕ = 0.5, p = 5.0 atm, and T = 1250 and 1450 K.
Numbers are percent contribution to the consumption of the species on the source side of the arrow.
Hence, further analysis is necessary to investigate and discuss
the difference using sensitivity analysis.
For MCH, JetSurF2.0, Wang. et al., and Silke et al.
mechanisms were used to describe the main reaction pathways,
as shown in Figure 8. The MCH molecule is primarily dissociated by unimolecular decomposition, including breakoff of
the methyl group, C−H cleavage, and ring-opening reaction.
According to the Silke et al. mechanism, MCH can decompose
to form the biradicals (not shown here in Figure 8), while
the Wang et al. mechanism14 shows that MCH decomposes
directly to C7 alkenes. However, this reaction pathway
consumes only a few MCH and has limited influence on the
MCH oxidation in Wang et al. and Silke et al. mechanisms. In
contrast, JetSurF2.0 exhibits a significantly large portion (50%
at 1250 K and 75% at 1450 K) of MCH via the ring-opening
reaction to produce 1-heptene and 2-heptene. This is the main
reason causing the underprediction of ignition delay times
using JetSurF2.0 at an elevated pressure (Figure 5)
Figure 9 shows the comparison of ring-opening reaction rate
constants for MCH and CH (CH3cC6H11 = C7H14-2 and
cC6H12 = C6H12) in JetSurF2.026 and Wang et al.14 mechanisms. It can be seen that JetSurF2.0 recommends a remarkably
larger reaction rate constant for the reaction of CH3cC6H11 =
C7H14-2 than Wang et al.; the latter calculated the rate parameters at the CBS-QB3 level. Moreover, it should be unreasonable that the rate constant of reaction CH3cC6H11 =
C7H14-2 is so much greater than that of reaction cC6H12 =
C6H12. The reason is that CH and MCH have similar strain
energies29 and similar ring structure, and the rate constants of
ring-opening reactions for CH and MCH should be comparable. Hence, the reaction rate for MCH ring-opening reactions recommended by JetSurF 2.0 might be too fast.
To further understand the consumption pathways of MCH,
flux analysis on H-abstraction reactions was performed at
ϕ = 0.5, 5.0 atm, and 1450 K, as shown in Figure 10. It can be
found that MCH-R2 and MCH-R3 are the major products
(>25% for each pathway), while the percentage of pathways
leading to MCH-R0, MCH-R1, and MCH-R4 is less than half
of that leading to MCH-R2 and MCH-R3. The results agree
Figure 9. Comparison of rate constants between ring-opening
reactions of MCH and CH in the Wang et al.14 and JetSurF 2.026
mechanisms.
well with those reported by Hong et al.19 Four methylcyclohexyl isomers make the mixture of the intermediate species
complex. All five isomers can be consumed through β-scission.
Because of molecular symmetry, MCH-R0, MCH-R1, and
MCH-R4 produce only one type of chain alkyl radicals, i.e.,
1-hepten-7-yl, 2-methylhexen-6-yl, and 5-methylhex-6-yl radicals, respectively, via ring-opening reactions. However, MCHR2 and MCH-R3 can form both straight and branched chain
alkyl radicals, respectively. In addition, about 10% of MCH-R0
undergoes cyclic isomerization to form MCH-R4. A total of
13.3% of MCH-R1 and 30.5% of MCH-R4 generate the
methylcyclohexenes via dehydrogenation. The chain alkyl
radicals are then dissociated directly to form smaller radicals,
such as C3H5, C2H5, C2H4, C2H3, and CH3 radicals. It is noted
that the isomerization reactions play an important role in the
consumption of chain alkyl radicals. The reason is manly that
transition state species, which consist of a five-membered
ring formed via a 1,4 internal H-shift, have only a small strain
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Figure 10. Flux analysis on H-abstraction reactions for MCH using the Wang et al. mechanism:14 ϕ = 0.5, p = 5.0 atm, and T = 1450 K.
and R180 (C2H3 + O2 = CH2CHO + O) and enhance the
reactivity of the reacting system. However, the H radical and
HO2/OH radicals are consumed through reactions R946 (cC6H12 +
H = cC6H11 + H2) and R20 (HO2 + OH = H2O + O2) and
inhibit the oxidation. On the other hand, reactions producing
radical precursors can expedite the CH ignition, such as reaction R883 (PXC6H11 = C4H7 + C2H4), because the important
H-radical precursor C4H7 is generated via reaction R883. Furthermore, its competitor reaction R885 (PXC6H11 = SAXC6H11)
inhibits the CH ignition. Through comparing the sensitivity
coefficients at 1250 and 1450 K, it can be found that the change
of the temperature only causes an insignificant effect.
Figure 11b displays the result obtained using the Sirjean et al.
mechanism. Although the importance of relevant reactions to
small radicals is still highlighted, this mechanism reports that
the reverse of reaction G56 (cC6H11 = cC6H10 + H) plays an
important positive role in promoting ignition because of the
generation of a high active H radical. Its competitive pathway,
cyclohexyl forming 1-hexenyl (G55), has a large positive sensitive coefficient, suggesting a strong inhibiting effect on ignition.
This is obviously different from that presented in the Wang
et al. mechanism.14 In Figure 11a, the reactions of cyclohexyl
producing 1-hexenyl and cyclohexene/H radical are not
displayed and the decomposition reactions of 1-hexenyl
(R883 and R885) have large sensitivity coefficients. It implies
the importance of production of 1-hexentyl instead of cyclohexene/H radical by cyclohexyl. This is different from what was
energy. Moreover, a comparison of the percentage of pathways
between T = 1250 and 1450 K shows that the effect of temperatures is limited in this range.
3.4. Sensitivity Analysis. To interpret the difference
between Sirjean et al. and Wang et al. mechanisms for predicting CH ignition and determine the important chemical
reactions for oxidation of CH, sensitivity analysis of ignition
delay times was performed for the CH/O2/Ar mixture at
ϕ = 0.5, p = 5.0 atm, and T = 1250 and 1450 K using Sirjean
et al. and Wang et al. mechanisms. The sensitivity coefficient is
defined as
S=
τ(2.0ki) − τ(0.5ki)
1.5τ(ki)
where τ is the ignition delay time, ki is the rate constant for the
ith reaction, and S is the sensitivity coefficient. A positive value
of S indicates a global inhibiting effect on reactivity, while a
negative value of S means a promoting effect.
Figure 11 shows the most sensitive reactions for CH ignition.
It can be seen that reaction H + O2 = OH + O is always dominant because it is the most important chain-branching channel
at a high temperature. According to the Wang et al. mechanism14 (Figure 11a), the reactions producing small active
radicals generally promote the oxidation of CH molecules,
while reactions consuming active radicals inhibit the ignition.
For instance, the oxygen atom and hydroxyl radical can be
formed through the reactions R99 (CH3 + HO2 = CH3O + OH)
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of predictions between the Sirjean et al. mechanism and
the modified mechanism. It can be clearly seen that the
numerical ignition delay time decreases significantly and better
predictions are presented when using the modified mechanism.
It is thus inferred that the inadequate CH submechanism in the
Sirjean et al. mechanism is mainly responsible for the failed
prediction.
In addition, sensitivity analysis of ignition delay times was
also carried out using the Wang et al. mechanism for MCH at
5.0 atm and 1250 and 1450 K, as shown in Figure 13. The
Figure 13. Sensitivity analysis of MCH at ϕ = 0.5, p = 5 atm, and T =
1250 and 1450 K using the Wang et al. mechanism.14 The normalized
sensitivity coefficient of reaction H + O2 = O + OH is divided by 3.
result indicates that the reactions relevant to small radicals still
dominate the ignition and oxidation of MCH. However, the
reactions associated with the resonant ally radical (R349,
aC3H5 + H (+M) = C3H6 (+M); R354, C3H6 + H = aC3H5 + H2)
have large positive sensitivity coefficients and inhibit the overall
reaction. It is due to the fact that the presence of a methyl
group facilitates the production of propene and allyl radicals
relative to CH. However, the temperature has generally little
influence on essential reactions.
Figure 14 shows the most sensitive reactions in oxidations of
CH and MCH using the Wang et al. mechanism14 at ϕ = 2.0,
Figure 11. Sensitivity analysis of CH at ϕ = 0.5, p = 5.0 atm, and T =
1250 and 1450 K using the (a) Wang et al. mechanism14 and (b)
Sirjean et al. mechanism.13 The normalized sensitivity coefficient of
reaction H + O2 = O + OH is divided by 3.
Figure 12. Comparison between measured and simulated results.
Symbols, experimental data; dot-dash line, Sirjean et al. model; and
solid line, modified model.
reported by the Sirjean et al. mechanism. It is implied that the
submodel of CH oxidation in the Wang et al. mechanism is
different from that in the Sirjean et al. mechanism. We modified
the Sirjean et al. mechanism by replacing its CH submodel with
that of the Wang et al. mechanism. The reactions used for substitution are listed in Table 3. Figure 12 shows the comparison
Figure 14. Sensitivity analysis of CH and MCH at ϕ = 2.0, p = 5.0
atm, and T = 1450 K using the Wang et al. mechanism.14 The
normalized sensitivity coefficient of reaction H + O2 = O + OH is
divided by 3.
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Table 3. Reactions for CH Oxidation from the Wang et al. Mechanism,14 Which Replace Those in the Sirjean et al.
Mechanism13
number
reaction
1
2
3
4
5
6
cC6H12 + H = cC6H11 + H2
cC6H12 + CH3 = cC6H11 + CH4
cC6H12 + OH = cC6H11 + H2O
cC6H12 + O = cC6H11 + OH
cC6H12 + O2 = cC6H11 + HO2
cC6H11 = PXC6H11
PLOG/1.0
PLOG/10.0
PLOG/100.0
cC6H11 = cC6H10 + H
PLOG/1.0
PLOG/10.0
PLOG/100.0
PXC6H11 (+M) = C4H7 + C2H4 (+M)
low
7
8
9
PXC6H11 (+M) = SAXC6H11 (+M)
low
10
SAXC6H11 (+M) = C4H6 + C2H5 (+M)
low
A
2.70 × 1010
9.06 × 100
5.85 × 105
2.58 × 106
2.40 × 1014
1.26 × 1022
2.59 × 1032
2.07 × 1041
5.79 × 1044
8.38 × 1020
5.73 × 1032
1.37 × 1043
7.21 × 1047
3.98 × 1012
3.30 × 10−43
Troe, −13.59, 214, 28, 50000.0
1.55 × 102
1.50 × 10−30
Troe, −13.59, 214, 28, 50000.0
3.39 × 1011
4.00 × 10−42
Troe, −18.50, 246, 28, 50000.0
1450 K, and 5.0 atm. In comparison to the case at ϕ = 0.5, no
significant difference is observed. Hence, there is little change in
the major reactions with the change in the equivalence ratio. In
Figure 6, it can be seen that CH has evidently a shorter ignition
delay time than MCH for a fuel-lean mixture, while CH and
MCH have comparative ignition delay times for a fuel-rich
mixture. It is due to the fact that sufficient oxygen in the fuellean mixture can largely motivate the reaction: H + O2 = OH + O,
leading to abundant small radicals of OH and O. They are in
favor of consumption of intermediate hydrocarbon species. As a
result, ignition is promoted. CH is able, as analyzed before, to
release more H radical during its decomposition than MCH.
Hence, more active radicals can be produced in a fuel-lean
mixture for CH. Thus, a much shorter ignition delay time of
CH is shown at ϕ = 0.5. However, at ϕ = 2.0, there are excessive intermediate species, requiring more small radicals, and
HO2 becomes very important, which weakens the effect of the
production of the H radical. As a result, the advantage of
producing more H radical during CH decomposition is
suppressed, resulting in comparative ignition delay times of
CH and MCH.
n
Ea
1.39
3.46
2.45
2.60
0.00
−3.85
−6.32
−8.51
−9.15
−3.63
−6.47
−9.02
−9.98
0.12
18.35
8229
5480
−1164
2565
47590.0
22627
32020
40814
46530
23771
34206
44242
51272
27571.6
−602.5
2.83
14.56
15566.2
−602.4
0.66
18.05
32262.9
−602.6
fuel-lean mixture when using the Sirjean et al. mechanism. Flux
analysis and sensitivity analysis of the ignition delay time are
carried out using these three mechanisms to understand the
oxidation of CH and MCH. Both CH and MCH decompose
mainly through H-abstraction reactions, and these reactions
show a large positive sensitivity coefficient because they consume active radicals, such as H and OH radicals. JetSurF2.0
reports differently that a large part of MCH undergoes unimolecular decomposition to form alkenes. It is due to the
corresponding reaction rates being too high.
The ignition delay time of MCH is longer than CH for a fuellean mixture. However, a low oxygen concentration tends to cut
down the tendency, leading to similar ignition delay times of
CH and MCH. It is attributed to the fact that CH can generate
more H radical than MCH. In the fuel-lean mixture, sufficient
oxygen motivates H + O2 = OH + O. This can quickly consume
the intermediate species. In a fuel-rich mixture, excessive fuels
consume the active radicals and HO2 becomes dominant. As a
result, the predominance of CH is suppressed.
■
ASSOCIATED CONTENT
S Supporting Information
*
4. CONCLUSION
In this study, ignition delay times for MCH and CH are
measured at pressures of 1.0−16.0 atm, equivalence ratios of
0.5−2.0, and temperatures of 1100−1650 K in a shock tube. A
comparison to the previous data in similar conditions shows
fairly agreement to experimental data. Correlations are also
made for CH and MCH at three equivalence ratios. The dependence upon pressure is around 0.58, and the perceivable decrease in activity energy for a fuel-rich mixture is ascribed to
stimulation of the HO2 radical at a low temperature. Several
current mechanisms are adopted to reproduce the experimental
results. The CH submechanism in the Sirjean et al. mechanism13 is different from the Wang et al.14 and JetSurF2.026 mechanisms, leading to overprediction of the ignition delay time for a
Determination of uncertainty of ignition delay time. This
material is available free of charge via the Internet at http://
pubs.acs.org.
■
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Authors
*Telephone: 86-29-82665075. Fax: 86-29-82668789. E-mail:
yjzhang_xjtu@mail.xjtu.edu.cn.
*Telephone: 86-29-82665075. Fax: 86-29-82668789. E-mail:
zhhuang@mail.xjtu.edu.cn.
Notes
The authors declare no competing financial interest.
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■
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work is supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (51206132 and 91441203) and the
National Basic Research Program (2013CB228406). Authors
also appreciate the funding support from the Fundamental
Research Funds for the Central Universities and State Key
Laboratory of Engines (SKLE201305).
■
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