Investigation of reaction properties to facilitate chemical lumping of kinetic mechanisms

Abstract: Combustion process are used to improve modern society, but it comes with problems, like global warming and air pollution. Computer simulations are used to study combustion process to allow more efficient use of the fuel or decrease the creation of pollution. The main problem with simulations of combustion process is that they are very time consuming, as both physical effects and chemical reactions must be in the simulation. The chemical reactions are typically simplified to shorten the time needed. The project reported here is part of a larger project with the aim of creating a program that can reduce the size of an chemical kinetics mechanism. The goal of the project reported here is to create two methods that, through chemical lumping, reduces the size of mechanisms, which in turn will reduce the time needed for simulations of combustion process. Both methods were tested on one mechanism with methanol as fuel. One was also tested on another mechanism with both methanol and propane as fuel. The method tested on two mechanisms gave worse results than the original mechanisms, while the other was on par with the original mechanism. Both methods shows potential, but further work is needed before they can be implemented into the reduction program.