High temperature shock tube experiments and kinetic modeling study of diisopropyl ketone ignition and pyrolysis

Diisopropyl ketone (DIPK) is a promising biofuel candidate, which is produced using endophytic fungal conversion. In this work, a high temperature detailed combustion kinetic model for DIPK was developed using the reaction class approach. DIPK ignition and pyrolysis experiments were performed using the UCF shock tube. The shock tube oxidation experiments were conducted between 1093K and 1630K for different reactant compositions, equivalence ratios (φ=0.5–2.0), and pressures (1–6atm). In addition, methane concentration time-histories were measured during 2% DIPK pyrolysis in argon using cw laser absorption near 3400nm at temperatures between 1300 and 1400K near 1atm. To the best of our knowledge, current ignition delay times (above 1050K) and methane time histories are the first such experiments performed in DIPK at high temperatures. Present data were used as validation targets for the new kinetic model and simulation results showed fair agreement compared to the experiments. The reaction rates corresponding to the main consumption pathways of DIPK were found to have high sensitivity in controlling the reactivity, so these were adjusted to attain better agreement between the simulation and experimental data. A correlation was developed based on the experimental data to predict the ignition delay times using the temperature, pressure, fuel concentration and oxygen concentration.