AN EXPERIMENTAL AND MODELING STUDY OF LAMINAR FLAME SPEEDS OF ALTERNATIVE AVIATION FUELS

The present work reports on measurements of burning velocities of synthetic fuel air mixtures exploiting the cone-angle method, as part of the EU project ALFA-BIRD. The GtL (Gas-to-Liquid)-air mixtures - (i) 100% GtL and (ii) GtL+20% hexanol, respectively - were studied at atmospheric pressure, with values of the equivalence ratio phi ranging between phi similar to 1.0 and phi similar to 1.3, at preheat temperatures T-o = 423 K (GtL+20% hexanol) as well as T-o = 473 K (for 100% GtL and GtL+20% hexanol). A comparison between experimentally obtained burning velocities and predicted values of laminar flame speed is presented, too. In general, good agreement was found between predicted and measured data for the range of conditions considered in the present study. The predictive capability of the detailed reaction model consisting of 3479 reactions involving 490 species will be discussed focusing on the laminar flame speed and the combustion of the components (n-decane, iso-octane, and l-hexanol) of the surrogate used.