  To better understand the chemistry involved during the combustion of
components of diesel fuel, the structure of a laminar lean premixed methane
flame doped with n-butylbenzene has been investigated. The inlet gases
contained 7.1% (molar) of methane, 36.8% of oxygen and 0.96% of n-butylbenzene
corresponding to an equivalence ratio of 0.74 and a ratio C10H14 / CH4 of
13.5%. The flame has been stabilized on a burner at a pressure of 6.7 kPa using
argon as diluent, with a gas velocity at the burner of 49.2 cm/s at 333 K.
Quantified species included the usual methane C0-C2 combustion products, but
also 16 C3-C5 hydrocarbons, 7 C1-C3 oxygenated compounds, as well as 20
aromatic products, namely benzene, toluene, phenylacetylene, styrene,
ethylbenzene, xylenes, allylbenzene, propylbenzene, cumene, methylstyrenes,
butenylbenzenes, indene, indane, naphthalene, phenol, benzaldehyde, anisole,
benzylalcohol, benzofuran, and isomers of C10H10 (1-methylindene,
dihydronaphtalene, butadienylbenzene). A new mechanism for the oxidation of
n-butylbenzene is proposed whose predictions are in satisfactory agreement with
measured species profiles in flames and flow reactor experiments. The main
reaction pathways of consumption of n butylbenzene have been derived from flow
rate analyses.
