Kinetic Mechanism of Ignition of Propane–Butane Mixtures at Low and High Temperatures: Development and Application

A kinetic model for the ignition and combustion of mixtures of propane and n-butane in air has been developed. The model contains 348 reactions involving 72 species and includes both high and low-temperature mechanisms of oxidation of propane and n-butane. The kinetic model was tested against experimental data on the ignition delay time and laminar flame speed. The model provides a good fit to experimental data on propane ignition and the laminar flame speed in propane–air mixtures, the ignition of n-butane under different initial conditions ( $$T_0=670{-}1550$$ K, $$p_0=1{-}30$$ atm, $$\phi =0.3{-}2.0$$ ), the laminar flame speed in mixtures of n-butane with air at $$T_0=298$$ K, $$p_0=1$$ atm and different stoichiometric ratios ( $$\phi =0.67{-}1.5$$ ), and the ignition of stoichiometric C3H8/C4H10/N2/Ar mixtures with different ratios of C3H8/C4H10 at $$T_0=710{-}910$$ K and $$p_0=17.8$$ atm. The developed kinetic mechanism was used to perform a demonstration numerical simulation of the combustion of propane–butane fuel in a homogeneous combustor.