3.3. Chemical kinetics analysis
Kinetics analysis was made with Li’s mechanism [23] and
PREMIX code of CHEMKIN-II. Because of the importance of
Fig. 8 e Comparison between the CCD and OH-PLIF images at XH2[40%.
Fig. 9 e Measured and calculated laminar flame speed
versus equivalence ratio at different XH2 and temperature
of 25 C.
1640 international journal of hydrogen energy 38 (2013) 1636 e1643
small radicals in the chain propagating combustion chemistry,
the effect of increasing XH2 on the rate of production of
typical small radicals such as H and OH is examined. Fig. 12
gives the comparison of reactions for the highest rate of
production of H radicals and OH radicals at f ¼ 1.2 and
hydrogen fractions of 20% and 80%. As shown in Fig. 12(a), the
main contribution of producing H radical is reaction (R29)
CO þ OH ¼ CO2 þ H in low XH2 mixture combustion. For high
XH2 mixture, reaction (R3) H2 þ OH ¼ H2O þ H is the dominant
reaction and peak production rate increases from 1.322E-
3 mol/(cm3 s) to 8.091E-3 mol/(cm3 s) when hydrogen fraction
increases from 20% to 80%. For the consumption of H radicals,
the dominant reactions for the two XH2 are the same, Reaction
(R1) H þ O2 ¼ O þ OH, but peak consumption rate increases
significantly when hydrogen fraction increases from 20% to
80%. For the two mixtures, the production of OH radical, as
shown in Fig. 12(b), is mainly attributed to reaction R1
(H þ O2 ¼ O þ OH), and peak ROP of R1 significantly increases
when hydrogen fraction increases from 20% to 80%. However,
the reaction with the highest consumption rate of OH radicals
changes from reaction R29 (CO þ OH ¼ CO2 þ H) to reaction R3
(H2 þ OH ¼ H2O þ H). They are the two major reactions that
contribute to the production of H radicals, as shown in
Fig. 12(a). Furthermore, with increase of XH2 , peak ROP of H
slightly shifts to the upstream. The increased production rate
with increasing XH2 facilitates the back-diffusion of H radicals
and shifts reaction zone to the upstream.
Sensitivity analysis is made to find the dominant reactions
on laminar burning speed. Fig. 13 gives the sensitivity of reactions
at different XH2 and two equivalence ratios. As shown in
Fig. 13(a), the most important reactions at XH2 ¼ 20% is reaction
R29. While at XH2 ¼ 80%, reactions R3 and R1 are two equally
important reactions. R3 has positive effect on flame speed at
XH2 ¼ 40% and 80%, while it has negative effect on flame speed
at XH2 ¼ 20%. This is consistent with the observation in Fig. 12.
The dominant reaction for the low XH2 flames is R29, and the
dominant reaction for the high XH2 flames is R3, thus there is
a competition between reaction R29 and R3 in getting the OH
radicals. The negative effect depends strongly on XH2 . Fig. 13(b)
shows flame speed sensitivity at f ¼ 1.2, similar to the case at
f ¼ 0.8, with the increase of XH2 , the dominant enhancing
reactions to flame speed shifts from R29 to R3.