Detailed and Reduced Chemical Kinetic Model Development for Rocket Hydrocarbon Combustion

We propose here a flow simulation-driven approach to developing reduced chemical kinetics models for flows of contemporary interest in liquid hydrocarbon fueled rocket engines. Our strategy will center around important canonical examples of hydrocarbon-oxygen combustion that are being presently modeled with high fidelity simulation tools, covering a wide range of fuels and flow conditions, including both constant pressure, as well as pressure gain cycles. Model reduction approaches will be performed using sensitivity studies of detailed kinetics, empirical tuning of existing models, and the use of modern mathematical methods which seek to construct low dimensional representations using multi-parameter greedy algorithms. We expect that deploying multiple methods in this manner will lead to better models. While phase-I will focus on existing experimental data for validation, a potential phase-II project will include a test component for systematic benchmarking of numerical methods. A general purpose chemical kinetics model reduction tool is being proposed that deploys these methods in a semi-automatic manner. This development will directly influence several important research activities in developing and deploying high fidelity simulation tools in rocket applications that HyPerComp is involved with.