Experiments and numerical simulation on the laminar flame speeds of dichloromethane and trichloromethane

The laminar flame speeds of blends of dichloromethane and trichloromethane with methane in air at room temperature and atmospheric pressure were experimentally determined using the counterflow twin-flame technique, varying both the amount of chlorinated compound in the fuel and the equivalence ratio of the unburned mixture. A detailed kinetic model previously employed for simulation of chloromethane combustion was expanded to include the oxidation kinetics of dichloromethane and trichloromethane. Numerical simulation shows that the expanded kinetic model predicted the flame speeds to within 3 cm/s of the measured values. Carbon flux and sensitivity analyses indicate that the reaction kinetics of the methane flame doped with chlorinated methanes are qualitatively similar, despite the variation in the chlorinated methane fuel structure.