Ignition Delay Times of High Pressure Oxy-Methane Combustion With High Levels of CO₂ Dilution

Ignition delay times and methane species time-histories were measured for methane/O₂ mixtures in a high CO₂ diluted environment using shock tube and laser absorption spectroscopy. The experiments were performed between 1300 K and 2000 K at pressures between 1 and 31 atm. The experimental mixtures were conducted at an equivalence ratio of 1 with CH₄ mole fractions ranging from 3.5%–5% and up to 85% CO₂ with a bath of argon gas as necessary. The ignition delay times and methane time histories were measured using pressure, emission, and laser diagnostics. Predictive ability of two literature kinetic mechanisms (GRI 3.0 and ARAMCO Mech 1.3) was tested against current data. In general, both mechanisms performed reasonably well against ignition delay time data. The methane time-histories showed good agreement with the mechanisms for most of the conditions measured. A correlation for ignition delay time was created taking into the different parameters showing that the ignition activation energy for the fuel to be 49.64 kcal/mol. Through a sensitivity analysis, CO₂ is shown to slow the overall reaction rate and increase the ignition delay time. To the best of our knowledge, we present the first shock tube data during ignition of methane under these conditions. Current data provides crucial validation data needed for development of future methane/CO₂ kinetic mechanisms.