skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Fundamental and semi-global kinetic mechanisms for hydrocarbon combustion. Final report, March 1977-October 1980

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6429174· OSTI ID:6429174

Over the past three and one half years, substantial research efforts of the Princeton Fuels Research Group have been directed towards the development of simplified mechanisms which would accurately describe the oxidation of hydrocarbons fuels. The objectives of this combustion research included the study of semi-empirical modeling (that is an overall description) of the chemical kinetic mechanisms of simple hydrocarbon fuels. Such fuels include the alkanes: ethane, propane, butane, hexane and octane as well as the critically important alkenes: ethene, propene and butene. As an extension to this work, the study of the detailed radical species characteristics of combustion systems was initiated as another major aspect of the program, with emphasis on the role of the OH and HO/sub 2/ radicals. Finally, the studies of important alternative fuel problems linked the program to longer range approaches to the energy supply question. Studies of alternative fuels composed the major elements of this area of the program. The efforts on methanol research were completed, and while the aromatics aspects of the DOE work have been a direct extension of efforts supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, they represented a significant part of the overall research effort. The emphasis in the proposed program is to provide further fundamental understanding of the oxidation of hydrocarbon fuels which will be useful in guiding engineering approaches. Although the scope of program ranges from the fundamentals of chemical kinetics to that of alternative fuel combustion, the objective in mind is to provide insight and guidance to the understanding of practical combustion environments. The key to our approach has been our understanding of the fundamental combustion chemistry and its relation to the important practical combustion problems which exist in implementing energy efficient, alternate fuels technologies.

Research Organization:
Princeton Univ., NJ (USA). Dept. of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Division of Conservation Research and Technology
DOE Contract Number:
AC22-77ET11287
OSTI ID:
6429174
Report Number(s):
DOE/ET/11287-T1
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English