A Novel Multi-Step Global Mechanism Scheme for n-Decane Combustion

Area of Science:

• Chemical kinetics
• Combustion science
• Computational fluid dynamics

Background:

• Detailed chemical kinetic mechanisms are crucial for accurate combustion simulations but are computationally expensive.
• Simplification methods are needed to reduce the complexity of these mechanisms for practical applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a significantly reduced chemical kinetic mechanism for n-decane combustion.
• To validate the accuracy of the reduced mechanism against a detailed model.

Main Methods:

• Application of the directed relation graph with error propagation (DRGEP) method to reduce a 119-species, 527-reaction detailed n-decane mechanism to a 32-species, 73-reaction skeletal mechanism.
• Further reduction of the skeletal mechanism using the quasi-steady state approximation (QSSA) to obtain an 18-species, 14-reaction global mechanism.

Main Results:

• A skeletal mechanism with 32 species and 73 reactions was derived from the detailed mechanism.
• A further reduced mechanism with 18 species and 14 global reactions was obtained using QSSA.
• Both the skeletal and reduced mechanisms accurately reproduced the combustion characteristics of the detailed mechanism across various initial conditions.

Conclusions:

• The developed reduced and skeletal mechanisms offer a computationally efficient alternative to the detailed mechanism for n-decane combustion.
• These simplified models are suitable for integration into large-scale combustion simulations, improving computational efficiency without sacrificing accuracy.