Studies of n-propanol, iso-propanol, and propane flames

The phenomena of propagation and extinction of flames of saturated C3 alcohols and propane were studied experimentally and numerically in order to assess the effects of the presence and location of the hydroxyl radical in the fuel molecular structure. The experiments were carried out in the counterflow configuration under atmospheric pressure and for unreacted fuel-carrying stream temperature of 343 K. The simulations included detailed descriptions of molecular transport and chemical kinetics using a recently developed kinetic model for C3 alcohols. The experimental results revealed that the laminar flame speeds and extinction strain rates of n-propanol/air and propane/air flames are close to each other whereas those of iso-propanol/air flames are consistently lower. Similar behavior was observed also for the extinction strain rates of non-premixed n-propanol and iso-propanol flames. It was shown through sensitivity and reaction path analyses that there are two major differences between the intermediates of n-propanol/air and iso-propanol/air flames. In iso-propanol/air flames there are notably higher concentrations of propene whose consumption pathway results in the relatively unreactive allyl radicals, retarding thus the overall reactivity. In n-propanol/air flames there are notably higher concentrations of formaldehyde that reacts readily to form formyl radicals whose subsequent reactions enhance the overall reactivity. The kinetic model used in this study was found to overpredict the experimental results for rich n-propanol/air and propane/air flames. Analysis revealed that those discrepancies are most likely caused by deficiencies in the C3 alkane kinetics. Through sensitivity analysis, it was determined also that the propagation and extinction of n-propanol/air and iso-propanol/air flames are sensitive largely to hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and C1–C3 kinetics and not to fuel-specific reactions. Finally, the relative sooting propensities of flames of these three fuels were assessed computationally.