Experimental study on combustion and yield characteristics of dimethyl carbonate/n-heptane blends in the cone calorimeter

A detail investigation of the combustion behavior of a representative ester-alkane blended fuel was conducted with the aim to get better knowledge of the fire hazard of the blended fuels. Experiments have been carried out in a cone calorimeter with ISO 5660 standard procedures. The blended fuel is burned in a fuel pan with 80 mm in diameter and 20 mm in lip, and the initial fuel volume is 20 mL. The hazard parameters such as heat release rate, effective combustion heat, combustion yield, and combustion efficiency were studied using a cone calorimeter. The actual combustion reaction equation of dimethyl carbonate (DMC)/n-heptane blends was calculated, and the thermal chemistry method based on the stoichiometry of reaction equation is adopted to evaluate the oxygen consumption method for the DMC/n-heptane blends. A formula is put forward to describe the burning rate of respective component in the blends during burning process, and the burning rate of DMC in the blends is steady during the test. The CO yield, carbon conversion ratio, and energy conversion efficiency data of the blends are calculated and compared, the result shows that the carbon conversion is close to the energy conversion, and this means that soot yield is the major contributor to incomplete combustion of blends.