Analysis on ignition and extinction of n-heptane in homogeneous systems

Abstract

To calculate ignition delay times, the governing equations about species and temperature, which are in a closed volume based on the theory of thermal explosion and in a continuously stirred flow reactor, are deducted. The method referred to steady state assumptions is based on the observation that due to very fast chemical processes in combustion problems many chemical species and reactions are in a quasi-steady state or partial equilibrium. When a species is assumed to be in the steady state, the corresponding differential equation can be replaced by an algebraic relation, which reduces the computational costs. The steady state solution of the reactor equations describes the three ignition temperature regimes and get “S-shaped curve”. The reduced simplified 4-step mechanism for n-heptane from 1011 elementary reactions leads with the steady state assumptions to linear differential equations, which is solved. The simulation results of the 4-step reduced mechanism for n-heptane are fitted well with the experiment data. At last, two important parameters are discussed thoroughly and the temperature perturbation is given. It reduces the computational efforts considerably without losing too much accuracy and further supplies numerical methods for turbulent combustion in the diesel engine.