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Ignition delay-time behind reflected shock waves of small hydrocarbons–nitrous oxide(–oxygen) mixtures

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Abstract

Although nitrous oxide has been identified as an important intermediate during the combustion of many solid propellants, there is a limited amount of data concerning the high-temperature oxidation of hydrocarbons by nitrous oxide. In the present study, ignition delay-times of small hydrocarbon–N\(_{2}\)O mixtures with and without O\(_{2}\) were investigated through shock-tube experiments and chemical kinetic simulations. Experimentally, it is shown that the addition of oxygen induces a significant reduction of the activation energy of the ignition process. Simulations demonstrate that delay-times are usually satisfactorilly predicted but that the detailed reaction models used do not capture all the features of the OH* emission profiles.

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Acknowledgments

The present work was performed in the Explosion Dynamics Laboratory of the California Institute of Technology. The authors acknowledge the help of Dr P. A. Boettcher, Dr J. Damazo, and A. Demenay for setting up the shock tube. The authors thank Professor G. Blanquart, Caltech, for providing his reaction mechanism and Doctor D. Davidenko for his help with the VTIM code.

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  1. Graduate Aeronautical Laboratories, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, USA

    R. Mével & J. E. Shepherd

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  1. R. Mével
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Correspondence to R. Mével.

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Communicated by G. Ciccarelli.

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Mével, R., Shepherd, J.E. Ignition delay-time behind reflected shock waves of small hydrocarbons–nitrous oxide(–oxygen) mixtures. Shock Waves 25, 217–229 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00193-014-0509-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00193-014-0509-4

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