Modeling Soot Formation in Kerosene and Fuel Surrogates Combustion

This article presents an analysis of soot formation in kerosene and fuel surrogates. This analysis is based on a detailed chemical mechanism for the combustion of single component fuels such as n-heptane, isooctane, benzene, and toluene. The chemical mechanism describes the formation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) up to cyclo[cd]pyrene and is shown to reproduce the formation of soot precursors with good accuracy. A tri-variate model for soot formation which represents soot particles as fractal aggregates is used. The ability of the mechanism and the soot model to predict formation of soot particles is assessed first in laminar premixed flames of n-heptane, iso-octane, benzene, and toluene. Then, a surrogate is formulated for kerosene fuel. This surrogate is validated against ignition delay times and a laminar rich premixed flame. Finally, a counterflow diffusion flame of kerosene/air is simulated numerically. The soot model based on the detailed chemical mechanism is found to represent accurately the formation of soot particles. Furthermore, the effect of strain rate on soot yield is well captured.