DEVELOPING REDUCED CHEMICAL MECHANISMS FOR AVIATION FUELS

The proposed research involves the development of a strategy for simplifying detailed chemical kinetic mechanisms for aviation fuels. A detailed mechanism describing the combustion of practical aviation fuels has recently been developed, Due to the large size and complexity of this mechanism, incorporation into state of the art CFD codes for simulation of turbulent reacting flows is precluded. The proposed work investigates the use of two reduction strategies, namely reduced mechanism methods and low dimensional manifold methods. These particular methods were chosen due to their current state of development and degree of automation. The research involves the development of reduced descriptions of the detailed chemistry using both approaches along with work to validate the proposed reductions. Physical properties of importance are pollutant formation (NOx and soot), major species concentrations, radical concentrations, temperatuare, and ignition delay. Feasibility of both approaches will be determined and the best approach selected for implementation in Phase II. Near the completion of the Phase I work, techniques for tabulation of the reduced chemistry will be investigated.