Combined experimental and modeling studies of acetylene oxidation in pulsed corona discharges working in the nanosecond regime are presented. The corona cell was characterized in term of power deposition to provide input data for the model. The concentrations of ozone, CO, CO(2) and residual acetylene were systematically measured for model validation purposes. The model used allows describing the detailed chemistry in the discharge and the mass transfer between the microdischarges and the discharge free regions in the corona cell. Results showed that the model allows a satisfactory prediction of the acetylene residual fraction, CO and CO(2) yields and O(3) concentration for a wide range of conditions. They enabled a precise identification of the product distribution and confirmed the central role of O-atom in the oxidation process. They also revealed that ketene, H(2)CCO, plays an important role in the oxidation mechanism and allowed drawing some conclusions on the optimization of the oxidation process.