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On the Formation of Nitrogen Oxides During the Combustion of ...

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A Chemical Mechanisms<br />

only deduced to describe <strong>the</strong> high temperature oxidation <strong>of</strong> gaseous alkane<br />

hydrocarbons up to butane (C 4 H 10 ).<br />

Ennetta et al. [124] compare <strong>the</strong> four-step, quasi-global mechanism <strong>of</strong> Jones<br />

and Lindstedt [199] and a single-step kinetic <strong>of</strong> Duterque et al. [106] with <strong>the</strong><br />

detailed GRI 3.0 mechanism [408] for methane combustion. The authors conclude<br />

that global mechanisms can provide results that are in good agreement<br />

with more detailed mechanisms with regard to particular engineering applications.<br />

However, <strong>the</strong> reduced mechanisms are incapable <strong>of</strong> predicting pollutant<br />

emissions. The major drawback <strong>of</strong> all global mechanisms is that <strong>the</strong>y<br />

do not account for chain branching reactions involving radicals [381, 474].<br />

These are essential for auto-ignition at low temperatures. Still, utilization <strong>of</strong><br />

<strong>the</strong> above mechanisms may well be an option for high temperature applications,<br />

when <strong>the</strong> limiting factor for ignition is <strong>the</strong>rmal feedback ra<strong>the</strong>r than reproduction<br />

<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> chain branching reactions. In contrast, Sazhin [381] refers to<br />

<strong>the</strong> Shell model [167, 168, 385] as <strong>the</strong> most commonly employed mechanism<br />

accounting for auto-ignition in automotive applications. This model captures<br />

<strong>the</strong> essential features <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> combustion process, such as chain branching and<br />

intermediate species, but it does not reproduce <strong>the</strong> actual physics and chemistry.<br />

It is an eight-step scheme incorporated into four processes, employing<br />

generic species with chemical reaction constants deduced from experiments.<br />

A.2 Concepts <strong>of</strong> Kinetics Reduction<br />

Apart from global kinetics presented in Chapter A.1, <strong>the</strong>re are various concepts<br />

to obtain user-specific mechanisms consisting <strong>of</strong> a lower number <strong>of</strong><br />

species and reactions. In comparison with detailed mechanisms, reduced<br />

mechanisms typically are free <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> fastest timescales but still able to reproduce<br />

<strong>the</strong> most essential features <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> problem under investigation.<br />

Conventional reduction methods require <strong>the</strong> selection and elimination <strong>of</strong> particular<br />

species and reactions by <strong>the</strong> user. Starting from detailed mechanisms,<br />

reduced kinetics are derived assuming reactions in partial equilibrium and<br />

species at quasi-steady state. Comparing <strong>the</strong> timescales <strong>of</strong> different reactions,<br />

<strong>the</strong> combustion process is limited by <strong>the</strong> slower reactions, while <strong>the</strong> fast<br />

ones are in partial equilibrium [149, 336, 443]. In order to save computational<br />

202

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