Investigation on the ignition and combustion performance of strained ring biomass hydrocarbon fuel 6,6-dimethylspirobicyclo3.1.1 heptane-2,1′-cyclopropane

XY Chen and ZY Yuan and S Yan and ZZ Li and H Zhang and YT Dai and YS Guo and WJ Fang, FUEL, 393, 135001 (2025).

DOI: 10.1016/j.fuel.2025.135001

Biomass high-density hydrocarbon fuels with excellent ignition performance are crucial for the development of hypersonic vehicles, hydrocarbon fuels with strained ring are usually more competitive. In this work, 6,6dimethylspirobicyclo3.1.1heptane-2,1 '-cyclopropane (C-/1-P) was synthesized from biomass compound /1-pinene. The ignition delay and droplet lifetime of C-/1-P under different conditions were measured by the highspeed backlight imaging apparatus, and the apparent combustion activation energy and evaporation constant were calculated. Compared with other hydrocarbon fuels, the excellent ignition performance of C-/1-P was mainly related to its molecular structure, while its evaporation performance had little effect. Under the experimental conditions in this work, the ignition delay and droplet lifetime of C-/1-P were only 3.7 % and 72.3 % of those of JP-10, respectively. Molecular dynamics simulation showed that the strained ring ruptured and formed free radicals at the initial combustion of C-/1-P, but oxygen was not involved at this stage. The initial ruptured pathways of C-/1-P during combustion have been verified through high- temperature experiments. The results explained the excellent ignition of C-/1-P by the initial combustion mechanism.

Return to Publications page