Combustion and Fuels Chemistry and Kinetics

Lecturer: Prof. William H. Green, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Course Length: 15 hours (Mon – Fri)

Session: Morning Session

Objective: Combustion is the release of stored chemical energy through a rather complicated sequence of chemical reactions. Many important combustion phenomena, including most fuel-dependent effects, are controlled primarily by chemical kinetics. This course will help you understand why and how changing the fuel changes combustion performance, the important chemical reactions in different combustion regimes, how combustion chemistry is modeled on the computer, and the criteria for a fuel to be successful in various applications. The course will focus most on the methods for constructing accurate combustion chemistry models, estimating the values of missing thermochemical and kinetic parameters, conducting sensitivity analysis, and validating combustion chemistry models. The course will also cover some of the basics of chemical rate theory used to compute rate parameters from first principles (for a deeper coverage of that topic, the student may consider taking Dr. Klippenstein’s course). It will also lightly cover some of the numerical methods used to incorporate complicated chemistry models in combustion simulations, since usually it is impractical to solve the full-detail chemistry model in 3D time-dependent simulations (for a deeper coverage of that topic, the student may consider taking Prof. Lu’s course).
 

Advanced Laser Diagnostics in Turbulent Combustion

Lecturer: Prof. Andreas Dreizler, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany
Course Length: 15 hours (Mon – Fri)

Session: Morning Session

Objective: Fundamentals of laser diagnostic methods in gases for improving a basic understanding of turbulent combustion: benchmark experiments, particle-based velocimetry, gas phase and surface thermometry, gas phase concentration measurements, towards 4D-imaging, application examples spanning from generic configurations to close-to-real combustion devices.

Combustion Theory

Lecturer: Professor Moshe Matalon, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Course Length: 15 hours (Mon – Fri)

Session: Afternoon Session

Objective: The aim of this course is to provide an understanding of the basic principles of combustion processes, how they relate to experimental observations and how they can be used in theoretical and numerical modeling. The various topics are presented in a systematic and rigorous way. Starting from the general equations describing the flow of chemically-reacting mixtures, we derive simplified descriptions of various combustion phenomena and discuss their physical significance. The topics include deflagration and detonation waves, the planar premixed flame and the laminar flame speed, hydrodynamic theory of premixed flames (flame stretch and differential diffusion effects), the structure of detonation waves, diffusion flames, lifted flames and the structure of edge flames, ignition and extinction phenomena, burning of condensed fuels and spray combustion, intrinsic flame instabilities, turbulent combustion.

Advanced Combustion Chemistry

Course Length: 15 hours (Mon – Fri)

Session: Afternoon Session

Part A: Predictive Ab Initio Kinetics for Combustion

Lecturer: Dr. Stephen J. Klippenstein, Argonne National Laboratory

Course Length: 9 hours (Mon - Wed)

Objective: Theoretical chemical kinetics has recently transformed from an empirical to a predictive science, with the highest level calculations now rivaling the accuracy of many experimental measurements. I will provide a detailed overview of the methods and tools required to implement ab initio elementary reaction kinetics at high levels of accuracy. The three lectures will cover (i) ab initio electronic structure theory, (ii) pressure independent chemical rate theory, and (iii) master equation based predictions of the pressure dependence of the kinetics. In each lecture, I will progress from textbook level descriptions to state of the art methodologies. We will use numerous applications to combustion relevant problems to illustrate the utility and implementation of the methods..
 

Part B: Mechanism Reduction and Advanced Chemistry Solvers

Lecturer: Prof. Tianfeng Lu, University of Connecticut

Course Length: 6 hours (Thurs - Fri)

Objective: This course will provide an introduction to mechanism reduction based on sensitivity, connectivity and timescale analyses, and strategies to systematically identify the chemical kinetic processes controlling such critical flame behaviors as ignition, extinction and premixed reaction front propagation in laminar and turbulent environments. Strategies to control reduction errors and to accelerate simulations involving complex chemistry will also be discussed.

Frontiers in Combustion Technologies

Course Length: 15 hours (Mon – Fri)

Session: Afternoon Session

Part A: Plasma-Assisted Combustion

Lecturer: Prof. Yiguang Ju, Princeton University

Course Length: 9 hours (Mon - Wed)

Objective: This course will provide an overview of the fundamentals of non-equilibrium plasma discharge, plasma enhancement of ignition and flame propagation, plasma combustion chemistry, diagnostics and modeling, and perspectives of technical challenges and future research. The course will include the following lectures: (1) non-equilibrium plasma discharges, (2) fundamentals of plasma assisted combustion: ignition and flame propagation, (3) applications of plasma assisted combustion for combustion enhancement, (4) plasma combustion chemistry and diagnostics, and (5) perspectives of future research in plasma assisted combustion.

Part B: New Combustion Technologies –Promise and Progress

Lecturer: Dr. George A. Richards, National Energy Technology Laboratory, DOE

Course Length: 6 hours (Thurs - Fri)

Objective: This course will describe promising new combustion technologies that may enable high-efficiency power generation, and in some cases, with direct methods to control CO₂. Technologies discussed include chemical looping combustion, magneto-hydrodynamic generators, detonative pressure-gain combustion, and combustion for supercritical carbon dioxide power cycles. The lectures will describe fundamental combustion problems in these unique applications, including fluid-bed combustion with metal oxides, electric/magnetic interactions with reacting flows, detonation behavior, and high-pressure oxy/CO₂ combustion. Progress on these issues will be described, as well as a discussion of ongoing research topics.