Development and Validation of Small-Size Mechanism for RP-3 Aviation Fuel with High Precision

In this study, a kerosene surrogate model fuel containing 73% n-dodecane, 14.7% 1,3,5-trimethylcyclohexane, and 12.3% n-propylbenzene (percentage in mass) is developed by considering both the physical and chemical characteristics of practical aviation kerosene. By combining the small-size C₀-C₄ (carbon number) core mechanism and the large hydrocarbon submechanisms, a low- and high-temperature chemical kinetic mechanism including 43 species and 136 reactions is constructed for the kerosene surrogate model fuel. The performance of the 43-species mechanism is validated by examining various experimental ignition delay times and laminar flame speeds of single component of n-dodecane and practical kerosene. The predicted main species concentrations during the oxidation process in the jet-stirred reactor by this small-size mechanism exhibit generally acceptable performance with the corresponding experimental data of RP-3 kerosene. The results of brute force sensitivity analysis indicate that the mechanism retains key reaction paths. This relatively small size can be applied to the simulation of computational fluid dynamics to further explore the practical problems of aviation fuel application in engine.