THE IGNITION AND OXIDATION OF TETRAHYDROFURAN - EXPERIMENTS AND KINETIC MODELING

The ignition of tetrahydrofuran (THF) has been studied in a single-pul se shock tube under reflected shock wave conditions while the oxidatio n of THF was studied in a high-pressure jet-stirred reactor (JSR). The present experiments cover a wide range of conditions: 2- 10 atm, 0.5 less than or equal to phi less than or equal to 2.0, 800 - 1800 K. The ignition delays of THF, measured in a shock tube, have been used to p ropose an overall representation for the dependence of ignition delay time on the concentration of each component in the ignitable gas mixtu re: tau(all) = 10(-14.4)exp (19590/T-5) [C4H8O](0.272)[O-2](-0.984)[AR ](-0.189) (units: s, mole/dm(3), K). Concentration profiles of the rea ctants, stable intermediates and products of the oxidation of THF were measured in a JSR. A numerical model, consisting of a detailed kineti c reaction mechanism with 484 reactions (most of them reversible) of 7 1 species, describes the ignition of THF in reflected shock waves and its oxidation in a jet-stirred reactor. We observed a fairly good agre ement between the experimental results and the computations. Detailed kinetic modeling enabled identification of the major reaction paths an d sensitive kinetic parameters.