Experimental and modeling study of the oxidation of xylenes

This paper describes an experimental and modeling study of the oxidation of the three isomers of xylene (ortho-, meta-, and para-xylenes). For each compound, ignition delay times of hydrocarbon-oxygen-argon mixtures with fuel equivalence ratios from 0.5 to 2 were measured behind reflected shock waves for temperatures from 1330 to 1800 K and pressures from 6.7 to 9 bar. The results show a similar reactivity for the three isomers. A detailed kinetic mechanism has been proposed, which reproduces our experimental results, as well as some literature data obtained in a plug flow reactor at 1155 K showing a clear difference of reactivity between the three isomers of xylene. The main reaction paths have been determined by sensitivity and flux analyses and have allowed the differences of reactivity to be explained. (c) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.