CHEMICAL KINETIC MODELLING OF HYDROCARBON COMBUSTION

Abstract

The oxidation mechanisms for the hydrocarbons, namely, methane, ethane and propane along with the hydrogen on the basis of low activation energy requirement have been considered. The rate expressions are taken from literature and the kinetic rate expressions for oxidation of hydrocarbons have been developed. By employing the steady state approximation a set of algebraic equations are formulated. The concentrations of the chain carriers are calculated by solving the algebraic equations using Newton-Raphson method. The concentrations of chain carriers are further substituted in the rate expressions of the final products for finding out the explosion limits, i.e., pressure and temperature. A Turbo C++ program has been developed for the determination of the explosion limits at stoichiometric mixture ratio of hydrocarbon oxidation and hydrogen oxidation. The results obtained from the modelling have good agreement with the existing experimental results