Modeling of Combustion of Mono-Carbon Fuels Using the Rate-Controlled Constrained-Equilibrium Method

Author(s):  
Sergio Ugarte ◽  
Mohamad Metghalchi ◽  
James C. Keck

Modeling of a non-equilibrium combustion process involves the solution of large systems of differential equations with as many equations as species present during the process. The process of chemical reaction and combustion is complicated since it may be governed by hundreds, sometimes thousands of microscopic rate processes. Integration of these equations simultaneously becomes more difficult with the complexity of the combustible. In order to reduce the size of these systems of equations, the Rate-Controlled Constrained-Equilibrium method (RCCE) has been proposed to model non-equilibrium combustion processes. This method is based on the Second Law of Thermodynamics, assuming that the evolution of a complex system can be described by a small number of rate-controlling reactions which impose slowly changing constraints on all allowed states of the system, therefore a non-equilibrium system will relax to its final equilibrium state through a sequence of rate controlled constrained equilibrium states. Oxidation induction times and concentration of species during a combustion process are found in a less complicated way with this method, as equations for constraints rather than for species determine the composition and evolution of the system. The time evolution of the system can be reduced since the number of constraints is much smaller than the number of species presents, so the number of equations to solve. The RCCE method has been applied to the stoichiometric combustion of mono-carbon fuels using 29 chemical species and 139 chemical reactions at different sets of pressure and temperature, ranging from 1 atm to 100 atm, and from 900 K to 1600 K respectively. Results of using 8, 9, 10 and 11 constraints compared very well to those of the detailed calculations at all conditions for the cases of formaldehyde (H2CO), methanol (CH3OH) and methane (CH4). For these systems, ignition delay times and major species concentrations were within 5% of the values given by detailed calculations, and computational saving times up to 50% have been met.

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ghassan Nicolas ◽  
Mohammad Janbozorgi ◽  
Hameed Metghalchi

The Rate-Controlled Constrained-Equilibrium (RCCE) has been further developed and applied to model methane/air combustion process. The RCCE method is based on local maximization of entropy or minimization of a relevant free energy at any time during the non-equilibrium evolution of the system subject to a set of constraints. The constraints are imposed by slow rate-limiting reactions. Direct integration of the rate equations for the constraint potentials has been employed. Once the values of the potentials are obtained, the concentration of all species can be calculated. A set of constraints has been developed for methane/air mixtures in the method of Rate-Controlled Constrained-Equilibrium (RCCE). The model predicts the ignition delay times, which have been compared to those predicted by detailed kinetic model (DKM) and with shock tube experimental measurements. The DKM includes 60 H/O/C1–2/N species and 352 reactions. The RCCE model using 16 constraints has been applied for combustion modeling in a wide range of initial temperatures (900–1200 K), pressures (1–50 atmospheres) and fuel-air equivalence ratio (0.6–1.2). The predicted results of using RCCE are within 5% of those of DKM model and are in excellent agreement with experimental measurements in shock tubes.


2015 ◽  
Vol 138 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ghassan Nicolas ◽  
Hameed Metghalchi

The rate-controlled constrained-equilibrium method (RCCE) has been further developed to model the combustion process of ethanol air mixtures. The RCCE is a reduction technique based on local maximization of entropy or minimization of a relevant free energy at any time during the nonequilibrium evolution of the system subject to a set of kinetic constraints. An important part of RCCE calculation is determination of a set of constraints that can guide the nonequilibrium mixture to the final stable equilibrium state. In this study, 16 constraints have been developed to model the nonequilibrium ethanol combustion process. The method requires solution of 16 differential equations for the corresponding constraint potentials. Ignition delay calculations of ethanol oxidizer mixtures using RCCE have been compared to those of detailed chemical kinetics using 37 species and 235 reactions. Agreement between the two models is very good. In addition, ignition delay of C2H5OH/O2/Ar mixtures using RCCE has been compared with the experimental measurements in the shock tube and excellent agreement has been reached validating the RCCE calculation.


Author(s):  
Sergio Ugarte ◽  
Mohamad Metghalchi ◽  
James C. Keck

Methanol oxidation has been modeled using the Rate-Controlled Constrained-Equilibrium method (RCCE). In this method, composition of the system is determined by constraints rather than by species. Since the number of constraints can be much smaller than the number of species present, the number of rate equations required to describe the time evolution of the system can be considerably reduced. In the present paper, C1 chemistry with 29 species and 140 reactions has been used to investigate the oxidation of stoichiometric methanol/oxygen mixture at constant energy and volume. Three fixed elemental constraints: elemental carbon, elemental oxygen and elemental hydrogen and from one to nine variable constraints: moles of fuel, total number of moles, moles of free oxygen, moles of free oxygen, moles of free valence, moles of fuel radical, moles of formaldehyde H2CO, moles of HCO, moles of CO and moles of CH3O were used. The four to twelve rate equations for the constraint potentials (LaGrange multipliers conjugate to the constraints) were integrated for a wide range of initial temperatures and pressures. As expected, the RCCE calculations gave correct equilibrium values in all cases. Only 8 constraints were required to give reasonable agreement with detailed calculations. Results of using 9 constraints showed compared very well to those of the detailed calculations at all conditions. For this system, ignition delay times and major species concentrations were within 0.5% to 5% of the values given by detailed calculations. Adding up to 12 constraints improved the accuracy of the minor species mole fractions at early times, but only had a little effect on the ignition delay times. RCCE calculations reduced the time required for input and output of data in 25% and 10% when using 8 and 9 constraints respectively. In addition, RCCE calculations gave valuable insight into the important reaction paths and rate-limiting reactions involved in methanol oxidation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guangying Yu ◽  
Fatemeh Hadi ◽  
Ziyu Wang ◽  
Hameed Metghalchi

AbstractDeveloping an effective model for non-equilibrium states is of great importance for a variety of problems related to chemical synthesis and combustion. Rate-Controlled Constrained-Equilibrium (RCCE), a model order reduction method that originated from the second law of thermodynamics, assumes that the non-equilibrium states of a system can be described by a sequence of constrained-equilibrium states kinetically controlled by a relatively small number of constraints within acceptable accuracy. The full chemical composition at each constrained-equilibrium state is obtained by maximizing (or minimizing) the appropriate thermodynamic quantities, e. g., entropy (or Gibbs functions), subject to the instantaneous values of RCCE constraints. Regardless of the nature of the kinetic constraints, RCCE always guarantees a correct final equilibrium state. This paper reviews the fundamentals of the RCCE method, its constraints, constraint potential formulations, and major constraint selection techniques, as well as the application of the RCCE method to combustion of different fuels using a variety of combustion models. The RCCE method has been proven to be accurate and to reduce computational time in these simulations.


2015 ◽  
Vol 137 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ghassan Nicolas ◽  
Hameed Metghalchi

The rate-controlled constrained-equilibrium (RCCE) method is a reduction technique based on local maximization of entropy or minimization of a relevant free energy at any time during the nonequilibrium evolution of the system subject to a set of kinetic constraints. In this paper, RCCE has been used to predict ignition delay times of low temperatures methane/air mixtures in shock tube. A new thermodynamic model along with RCCE kinetics has been developed to model thermodynamic states of the mixture in the shock tube. Results are in excellent agreement with experimental measurements.


2014 ◽  
Vol 136 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ghassan Nicolas ◽  
Mohammad Janbozorgi ◽  
Hameed Metghalchi

Rate-controlled constrained-equilibrium method has been further developed to model methane/air combustion. A set of constraints has been identified to predict the nonequilibrium evolution of the combustion process. The set predicts the ignition delay times of the corresponding detailed kinetic model to within 10% of accuracy over a wide range of initial temperatures (900 K–1200 K), initial pressures (1 atm–50 atm) and equivalence ratios (0.6–1.2). It also predicts the experimental shock tube ignition delay times favorably well. Direct integration of the rate equations for the constraint potentials has been employed. Once the values of the potentials are obtained, the concentration of all species can be calculated. The underlying detailed kinetic model involves 352 reactions among 60 H/O/N/C1-2 species, hence 60 rate equations, while the RCCE calculations involve 16 total constraints, thus 16 total rate equations. Nonetheless, the constrained-equilibrium concentrations of all 60 species are calculated at any time step subject to the 16 constraints.


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