Detonability of hydrocarbon fuels in air

Conference · Wed Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1989

OSTI ID:6419608

Beeson, H. D.; McClenagan, R. D.; Benz, F. J.; Pitz, W. J.; Westbrook, C. K.; Lee, J. H.S.

Liquid hydrocarbon fuels are used extensively in propulsion systems, and explosion hazards associated with fuel vapors mixed with air must be assessed. In this paper, the detonation of gas phase mixtures of n-hexane and the commercial fuel, JP-4, with oxidizers varying from pure oxygen to air, have been studied both experimentally and theoretically via kinetic modeling. Experiments were carried out in a detonation tube 150 mm in diameter and 1.75-m long. Detonation velocities and cell sizes, lambda, were measured as a function of stoichiometry and diluent concentration. The theoretical model calculates the induction length, ..delta.., of a one-dimensional ZND detonation using the detailed kinetics for the reaction of the hydrocarbon fuel used. The theoretical prediction for the cell size of n-hexane is found to agree well with the experimental data. N-hexane is the principal component of JP-4, this fuel would be expected to behave similarly to n-hexane. This similarity is confirmed experimentally. Critical energy and critical tube diameter are compared for a relative measure of the detonability of the heavy hydrocarbon fuels studied, and it appears from kinetic modeling that the detonation sensitivity increases slightly with increasing carbon number; however, this trend cannot be distinguished experimentally with the error in cell size measurement. 22 refs., 7 figs.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 6419608
• Report Number(s): UCRL-100490; CONF-8807160-1; ON: DE89008801
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
400201 -- Chemical & Physicochemical Properties
400800* -- Combustion
Pyrolysis
& High-Temperature Chemistry
AEROSOLS
AIR
ALKANES
CHEMICAL REACTION KINETICS
COLLOIDS
COMBUSTION KINETICS
DATA
DETONATIONS
DISPERSIONS
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FLUID MECHANICS
FLUIDS
FUELS
GASES
HEXANE
HYDROCARBONS
IGNITION
INFORMATION
KINETICS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MECHANICS
MIXTURES
NUMERICAL DATA
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXIDIZERS
REACTION KINETICS
SOLS
STOICHIOMETRY
THEORETICAL DATA
VAPORS