An experimental and kinetic modeling study of a four-component surrogate fuel for RP-3 kerosene

Detailed high-fidelity kinetic models of fuels are of great significance by providing guidance for the improvement of the combustion performance in engines and promising the reduction of design cycle of new concept combustors. However, the kinetic modeling works on Chinese RP-3 kerosene, the most widely used civil aviation fuel in China, are meager to date. In this study, a kinetic model, including a surrogate fuel and its combustion kinetic mechanism, were developed to describe the combustion of RP-3. Firstly, a surrogate comprised of components n-dodecane, 2,2,4,6,6-pentamethylheptane (PMH), n-butylcyclohexane and n-butylbenzene (22.82/31.30/19.19/26.69 mol%) was proposed based on the combustion property target matching method. These components are all within the typical molecular size (C10-C14) of jet fuels and thereby can potentially improve the ability of the surrogate in emulating the properties that depend on molecular size. Experiments were then carried out in a heated rapid compression machine and a heated shock tube to evaluate the performance of the surrogate in reproducing the combustion behavior of the target fuel over wide conditions. It is found that the surrogate can reproduce the autoignition characteristics of RP-3 very well. A chemical kinetic mechanism was developed to describe the oxidation of this surrogate. This mechanism was assembled using a published n-butylbenzene sub-mechanism and our previous sub-mechanisms for the other pure components, and was assessed against the present experimental data. The results showed that the simulations agreed well with the experimental data under the investigated conditions, demonstrating that the composition of the surrogate and its mechanism are appropriate to describe the combustion of RP-3. The first-stage ignition negative temperature coefficient behavior and the evolution of key radicals were investigated using the kinetic model.