Laminar burning velocities of methylcyclohexane + air flames at room and elevated temperatures: A comparative study

Laminar burning velocities of methylcyclohexane + air flames were determined using the heat flux method at atmospheric pressure and initial temperatures of 298-400 K. The measurements were performed on two experimental setups at Lund University and Samara National Research University. Our results obtained at the same initial temperatures are in good agreement. Consistency of the measurements performed at different temperatures was tested employing analysis of the temperature dependence of the burning velocities. This analysis revealed increased scatter in the burning velocity data at some equivalence ratios which may be attributed to the differences in the design of the burners used. New measurements were also compared to available literature data. Reasonably good agreement with the data of Kumar and Sung (2010) was observed at 400 K, with significantly higher burning velocities at the maximum at 353 K as compared to other studies from the literature. Predictions of two detailed reaction mechanisms developed for jet fuels - PoliMi and JetSurF 2.0 were compared with the present generally consistent measurements. The two kinetic models disagreed with each other, with the experimental data being located in between the model predictions. Sensitivity analysis revealed that behavior of the models is largely defined by C0-C2 chemistry. Comparison of the model predictions with the burning velocities of ethylene and methane showed the same trends in over- and under-predictions as for methylcyclohexane + air flames.