Shock tube/laser absorption measurements of the pyrolysis of a bimodal test fuel

A novel three-color, three-species laser absorption sensor for measurement of small (C2-C4) alkenes is introduced. This scheme, combined with an existing two-color CH4 ICL laser sensor and an existing one-color HeNe laser fuel sensor, was applied to the study of the decomposition of a bio-derived, highly-branched alcohol-to-jet (ATJ) test fuel in a shock tube, yielding multiple species (methane, ethylene, propene, and iso-butene) time-history measurements for temperatures between 1070 K and 1320 K and pressures between 1.3 atm and 1.5 atm. Simulations of the decomposition product yields for this fuel using a recent detailed reaction mechanism for highly-branched alkanes from Oehlschlaeger et al. (2009) compare favorably with these results.