Flame Calculations with Reduced Mechanisms — An Outline

The exciting phenomenon called a flame results from the interaction of convection and molecular diffusion with many chemical reactions on small length scales. This interaction can be described on the basis of balance equations for continuity, momentum, energy and mass fractions of the chemical species involved. The balance equations are highly non-linear differential equations and require specific numerical solution techniques. Such techniques have been developed for one-dimensional flame problems by different groups since the early 1970’s [1.1]–[1.19] and are quite efficient and reliable today [1.20]–[1.22]. During the same time and stimulated by this working tool, the detailed kinetic mechanisms for hydrocarbon flames have continuously been refined and improved, resulting, however, in a continuously growing number of reactions and species.