The rate-controlled constrained-equilibrium (RCCE), a model order reduction method, has been further developed to simulate the combustion of propane/oxygen mixture diluted with nitrogen or argon. The RCCE method assumes that the nonequilibrium states of a system can be described by a sequence of constrained-equilibrium states subject to a small number of constraints. The developed new RCCE approach is applied to the oxidation of propane in a constant volume, constant internal energy system over a wide range of initial temperatures and pressures. The USC-Mech II (109 species and 781 reactions, without nitrogen chemistry) is chosen as chemical kinetic mechanism for propane oxidation for both detailed kinetic model (DKM) and RCCE method. The derivation for constraints of propane/oxygen mixture starts from the eight universal constraints for carbon-fuel oxidation. The universal constraints are the elements (C, H, O), number of moles, free valence, free oxygen, fuel, and fuel radicals. The full set of constraints contains eight universal constraints and seven additional constraints. The results of RCCE method are compared with the results of DKM to verify the effectiveness of constraints and the efficiency of RCCE. The RCCE results show good agreement with DKM results under different initial temperature and pressures, and RCCE also reduces at least 60% CPU time. Further validation is made by comparing the experimental data; RCCE shows good agreement with shock tube experimental data.
Bottom-up modeling using the rate-controlled constrained-equilibrium theory: The n-butane combustion chemistry