Laminar flame speeds and kinetic modeling of hydrogen/chlorine combustion

In this study, laminar flame speeds at atmospheric pressure are accurately measured for H2/Cl2/N2 mixtures at different equivalence ratios and N2 mole fractions by the counterflow flame technique. A kinetic mechanism based on recently published and evaluated rate constants is developed to model these measured laminar flame speeds as well as the literature data on the concentrations of H2, Cl2, and HCl species in flat-burner flames and the ignition delay times from shock tube experiments. The kinetic model yields satisfactory comparison with these experimental data, and suggests that the reactions involving excited HCl(v) species and energy branching are not of substantial significance in combustion situations, and that the use of accurate elementary rate constants is instead crucial to the accuracy of the reaction mechanism.