Development of Reduced Reaction Mechanisms for C1-C6 Hydrocarbons

Abstract

Combustion is the result of exothermic chemical reactions between a fuel and an oxidizer. The release of heat can result in production of light in the form of a bright or a flame. The combustion of hydrocarbons is usually represented by a large number of chemical reactions, which constitute the full kinetic mechanism. Its use in computer models to simulate combustion processes may generate information to improve fuel quality and performance of the combustion process, and to quantify the emissions from this process. However, the use of full kinetic mechanisms generally complicates the numerical analysis of the process because of the excessive computational effort required. Due to this, it becomes important to develop reduced kinetic mechanisms for combustion processes, to reduce the computational effort in the numerical analysis of flames. Reduced mechanisms are obtained replacing the differential equations for the intermediate species, which are assumed to be in steady-state, by algebraic relations. This article aims to develop reduced kinetic mechanisms for C1-C6 hydrocarbons. Numerical values are compared with experimental data for the CO2 and the results are in agreement.