A skeletal iso-octane reaction mechanism for low temperature plasma ignition with ozone surrogate

Abstract In this work, we present a skeletal reaction mechanism for modeling ignition of iso-octane with low temperature plasma. The low temperature plasma was modeled by its main product ozone as a surrogate. A key chain branching reaction of oxygen radical attack on iso-octane was identified from reaction pathway analysis. A new skeletal reaction mechanism was developed by incorporating the key reaction along with ozone chemistry to the skeletal iso-octane reaction mechanism from Ra and Reitz [19]. Reaction rate constants of the key reactions and five other related reactions were calibrated to match predictions from the comprehensive reaction mechanism from Curran et al. [ Combust. Flame 129 (2002) 253–280]. The optimized reaction mechanism shows good agreement with the comprehensive mechanism. It provides sufficient accuracy and computational simplicity to enable practical CFD simulation of low temperature plasma ignition in internal combustion engines.