Modelling studies of the oxidation and autoignition of alkanes, aromatics, and their mixtures at high pressure between 600 and 1500 K. Reduction of detailed mechanisms. Measurement of soot formation.

The understanding and control of many combustion phenomena requires an interactive work between experiments and modelling. The presentation of the two coupled approaches is a prerequisite to demonstrate the complexity of the phenomena (Chapters I and II). This complexity often precludes from fully elucidating the details of the chemistry of hydrocarbon oxidations. Such a failure has been shown by an attempt to improve the mechanism of oxidation of isooctane (Chapter III). Hundreds of species and thousands of reactions come into play during the oxidation of an hydrocarbon and they all must be included into the detailed mechanisms. The need for smaller mechanisms logically has led to devise a technique of reduction (Chapter IV). Predictive thermokinetic mechanisms have been built, reduced, and validated with new experimental data and data collected from previous work or published elsewhere (Chapter V). Laser diagnostic techniques have been used to measure soot particles and HAP inside a methane flame (Chapter VI).