JP-10 Combustion Studies Using Automatic Reaction Mechanism Generation

The synthetic jet fuel JP-10 has important applications in propulsion technologies and has 11% higher volumetric energy density than conventional jet fuel JP-8. JP-10 is a single-component fuel consisting of the highly strained tricyclic molecule (exo-tricyclo(5.2.1.0(2,6))decane), which undergoes complex combustion chemistry at high temperatures. Here, the first detailed, comprehensive model of JP-10 combustion and pyrolysis kinetics was constructed using Reaction Mechanim Generator, an open-source automatic mechanism generation software package. Its predictions agree well with published experimental ignition delay data. A series of shock tube experiments were performed for multiple oxidation and pyrolysis conditions over a temperature range of 1000-1400 K at pressures of 5-8 bar, with products quantitatively analyzed using GC/MS. Comparisons of the model against shock tube data show that the model captures qualitative and quantitative trends in the product distribution over most experimental conditions. The combined experimental and modeling efforts demonstrate that the initial JP-10 decomposition pathways and branching ratios play an important role in product speciation.  Analysis of the discrepancies between the model predictions and the experiments highlights where future work is needed.