A comprehensive detailed chemical kinetic reaction mechanism for combustion of n-alkane hydrocarbons from n-octane to n-hexadecane

Detailed chemical kinetic reaction mechanisms have been developed to describe the pyrolysis and oxidation of nine n-alkanes larger than n-heptane, including n-octane (n-C8H18), n-nonane (n-C9H20), n-decane (n-C10H22), n-undecane (n-C11H24), n-dodecane (n-C12H26), n-tridecane (n-C13H28), n-tetradecane (n-C14H30), n-pentadecane (n-C15H32), and n-hexadecane (n-C16H34). These mechanisms include both high temperature and low temperature reaction pathways. The mechanisms are based on previous mechanisms for the primary reference fuels n-heptane and iso-octane, using the reaction classes first developed for n-heptane. Individual reaction class rules are as simple as possible in order to focus on the parallelism between all of the n-alkane fuels included in the mechanisms. These mechanisms are validated through extensive comparisons between computed and experimental data from a wide variety of different sources. In addition, numerical experiments are carried out to examine features of n-alkane combustion in which the detailed mechanisms can be used to compare reactivities of different n-alkane fuels. The mechanisms for these n-alkanes are presented as a single detailed mechanism, which can be edited to produce efficient mechanisms for any of the n-alkanes included, and the entire mechanism, with supporting thermochemical and transport data, together with an explanatory glossary explaining notations and structural details, is available for download from our web page.