A shock tube study of the auto-ignition of toluene/air mixtures at high pressures

The auto-ignition of toluene/air mixtures was studied in a shock tube at temperatures of 1021-1400 K, pressures of 10-61 atm, and equivalence ratios of Φ = 1.0, 0.5, and 0.25. Ignition times were measured using endwall OH∗ emission and sidewall piezoelectric pressure measurements. The measured pressure time-histories do not show significant pre-ignition energy release, in agreement with the rapid compression machine study of Mittal and Sung [G. Mittal, C.-J. Sung, Combust. Flame 150 (2007) 355-368] and disagreement with the shock tube study of Davidson et al. [D.F. Davidson, B.M. Gauthier, R.K. Hanson, Proc. Combust. Inst. 30 (2005) 1175-1182]. Kinetic modeling predictions from three detailed mechanisms are compared. Sensitivity analysis indicates that the reaction of toluene (C₆H₅CH₃) and the benzyl radical (C₆H₅CH₂) with molecular oxygen are important and examination of the rate coefficients for these reactions suggests that improved rate parameters for the multi-channel C₆H₅CH₂ + O₂ reaction may improve model predictions.