MAE 5430

Combustion Processes

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2024-2025.

Combustion is an interdisciplinary field that combines chemistry, fluid mechanics, thermodynamics and heat transfer. This course is an introduction to combustion science, beginning with a review of thermodynamics, its application to combustion system analysis, and concepts of chemical kinetics.  We will then discuss the nonequilibrium diffusive transport of heat, mass and momentum and introduce the general conservation equations for chemically reacting flows. The transport laws and governing equations are then applied to several flame configurations. Finally, the basic structure of premixed and non-premixed flames are analyzed, and practical applications of these principles in transportation, propulsion, power generation, and industrial processes are discussed.

When Offered Fall.

Permission Note Enrollment limited to: Graduate students.

• Students will be able to identify basic flame structure in existing practical combustion systems (gas turbine engine, internal combustion engines, etc.).
• Students will be able to identify regimes of subsonic and supersonic flame propagation in premixtures.
• Students will be able to compare and apply different models for predicting thermochemical data.
• Students will be able to distinguish reaction mechanisms corresponding to different fuels.
• Students will be able to calculate reaction rates.
• Students will be able to calculate analytically and numerically (using open-source software Cantera) the energy released during combustion and the thermodynamic state of the combustion products.

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