EXPERIMENTAL AND NUMERICAL-STUDIES OF DITERTIARY BUTYL PEROXIDE COMBUSTION AT HIGH-PRESSURES IN A RAPID COMPRESSION MACHINE

The spontaneous decomposition of di-t-butyl peroxide in the presence of oxygen, at high pressures following rapid compression, gives rise to two-stage ignition. The qualitative features of the development of the ignition are strongly dependent on the relative proportions of oxygen to peroxide vapor, as shown in the experimental results reported here. Numerical analyses of a detailed thermokinetic model coupled to a computational fluid dynamics program (KIVA II) give very satisfactory quantitative simulations of the fluid mechanical and kinetic events during compression and throughout the postcompression period up to the peak temperatures reached during ignition. The main kinetic features of the reaction are discussed. The differences between the results from the CFD calculations and the predicted behavior from numerical analyses in which a spatially uniform temperature is assumed to exist in the combustion chamber are also discussed.