No Arabic abstract
Autoignition experiments for n-butanol have been performed using a heated rapid compression machine at compressed pressures of 15 and 30 bar, in the compressed temperature range of 675-925 K, and for equivalence ratios of 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0. Over the conditions studied, the ignition delay decreases monotonically as temperature increases, and the autoignition response exhibits single-stage characteristics. A non-linear fit to the experimental data is performed and the reactivity, in terms of the inverse of ignition delay, shows nearly second order dependence on the initial oxygen mole fraction and slightly greater than first order dependence on initial fuel mole fraction and compressed pressure. Experimentally measured ignition delays are also compared to simulations using several reaction mechanisms available in the literature. Agreement between simulated and experimental ignition delay is found to be unsatisfactory. Sensitivity analysis is performed on one recent mechanism and indicates that uncertainties in the rate coefficients of parent fuel decomposition reactions play a major role in causing the poor agreement. Path analysis of the fuel decomposition reactions supports this conclusion and also highlights the particular importance of certain pathways. Further experimental investigations of the fuel decomposition, including speciation measurements, are required.
Autoignition delay experiments for the isomers of butanol, including n-, sec-, tert-, and iso-butanol, have been performed using a heated rapid compression machine. For a compressed pressure of 15 bar, the compressed temperatures have been varied in the range of 725-855 K for all the stoichiometric fuel/oxidizer mixtures. Over the conditions investigated in this study, the ignition delay decreases monotonically as temperature increases and exhibits single-stage characteristics. Experimental ignition delays are also compared to simulations computed using three kinetic mechanisms available in the literature. Reasonable agreement is found for three isomers (tert-, iso-, and n-butanol).
Methyl valerate (C$_6$H$_{12}$O$_2$, methyl pentanoate) is a methyl ester and a relevant surrogate component for biodiesel. In this work, we present ignition delays of methyl valerate measured using a rapid compression machine at a range of engine-relevant temperature, pressure, and equivalence ratio conditions. The conditions we have studied include equivalence ratios from 0.25 to 2.0, temperatures between 680 K and 1050 K, and pressures of 15 bar and 30 bar. The ignition delay data demonstrate a negative temperature coefficient region in the temperature range of 720 K-800 K for both $phi$=2.0, 15 bar and $phi$=1.0, 30 bar, with two-stage ignition apparent over the narrower temperature ranges of 720 K-760 K for the lower pressure and 740 K-800 K at the higher pressure. In addition, the experimental ignition delay data are compared with simulations using an existing chemical kinetic model from the literature. The simulations with the literature model under-predict the data by factors between 2 and 10 over the entire range of the experimental data. To help determine the possible reasons for the discrepancy between simulations and experiments, a new chemical kinetic model is developed using the Reaction Mechanism Generator (RMG) software. The agreement between the experimental data and the RMG model is improved but still not satisfactory. Directions for future improvement of the methyl valerate model are discussed.
Side-by-side comparison of detailed kinetic models using a new tool to aid recognition of species structures reveals significant discrepancies in the published rates of many reactions and thermochemistry of many species. We present a first automated assessment of the impact of these varying parameters on observable quantities of interest---in this case, autoignition delay---using literature experimental data. A recent kinetic model for the isomers of butanol was imported into a common database. Individual reaction rate and thermodynamic parameters of species were varied using values encountered in combustion models from recent literature. The effects of over 1600 alternative parameters were considered. Separately, experimental data were collected from recent publications and converted into the standard YAML-based ChemKED format. The Cantera-based model validation tool, PyTeCK, was used to automatically simulate autoignition using the generated models and experimental data, to judge the performance of the models. Taken individually, most of the parameter substitutions have little effect on the overall model performance, although a handful have quite large effects, and are investigated more thoroughly. Additionally, models varying multiple parameters simultaneously were evolved using a genetic algorithm to give fastest and slowest autoignition delay times, showing that changes exceeding a factor of 10 in ignition delay time are possible by cherry-picking from only accepted, published parameters. All data and software used in this study are available openly.
Usually microscopic electrostatic field around ions is neglected when the ionization energy is concerned. The ionization energy is considered to be equal to that of a separate atom (molecule). Here the energy of the electrostatic field around ions is taken into account. It is shown that the energy of this field contributes to decrease in the effective ionization energy. The effective ionization energy may turn to zero at some critical concentration of delocalized electrons. This leads to a complete ionization of the atoms (molecules). Concrete calculations were performed for oxygen molecular gas.
There have existed for a long time a paradigm that TiO phases at ambient conditions are stable only if structural vacancies are available. Using an evolutionary algorithm, we perform an ab initio search of possible zero-temperature polymorphs of TiO in wide pressure interval. We obtain the Gibbs energy of the competing phases taking into account entropy via quasiharmonic approximation and build the pressure-temperature diagram of the system. We reveal that two vacancy-free hexagonal phases are the most stable at relatively low temperatures in a wide range of pressures. The transition between these phases takes place at 28 GPa. Only above 1290 K at ambient pressure the phases with vacancies (B1-derived) become stable. In particular, the high-pressure hexagonal phase is shown to have unusual electronic properties, with a pronounced pseudo-gap in the electronic spectrum. The comparison of DFT-GGA and GW calculations demonstrates that the account for many-body corrections significantly changes the electronic spectrum near the Fermi energy.