CATALYTIC EFFECTS ON PREIGNITION CHEMISTRY.

Catalytic surface reactions are important only before local ignition occurs, that is catalytic surface reactions can only be expected to have an effect on the preignition chemistry. The parameters which influence the this effect include the gas temperature, the catalyst temperature, the equivalence ratio, the turbulence intensity and scale, the mean velocity, the pressure, the wall to wall spacing, and the residence time. In order to study such effects, a high pressure, turbulent, catalytic flow reactor has been constructed specifically for this purpose. Experiments show that the relative importance of catalytic and gas phase chemistry is characterized by CO//2, CO and exit temperature.