UNIDAD V

LECTURA INTENSIVA

Computational Combustion
Introduction

As the Combustion Institute celebrates its 50th anniversary, it is an interesting coincidence that the science of computer simulation and modeling is also approximately 50 years old. Beginning as a technical curiosity with minor impact on scientific research, computer modeling has grown rapidly to play a major role in virtually every field of science and engineering. In particular, computer modeling is now an essential part of combustion research; at the larger scale, enormous computer simulations are assisting in design and optimization of internal combustion engines, solid fuel rocket motors, industrial burners and furnaces, and gas turbine combustors, using massively parallel super computers. At the smaller scale, computer simulations are ubiquitous in everyday combustion life, being used to control operation of individual laboratory experiments, fit spectra in basic science studies, and a multitude of other research and routine applications.
Of course, the electronic computer is not the only modern feature of combustion science. In fact, most of the tools we use today have appeared and become essential during the past 50 years. It is almost impossible today to imagine a research project without the laser, the gas chromatograph or mass spectrometer, and many other tools, in addition to the computer. And each of these tools has grown rapidly in terms of capabilities and importance, although the growth of the computer as a tool has outstripped them all. All of them are indicative of the rapid pace of technological growth, and we must assume that future growth will be at least as rapid and profound. We should continually ask ourselves if we are realizing comparable growth in our understanding of and ability to control the combustion processes that are so much a part of our lives. As we will hope to describe in this paper, computer simulations have certainly added a great deal of understanding, providing fundamental answers to many long-standing questions.
Computational combustion is an enormous topic, with many of the different aspects deserving and receiving reviews by themselves. We are attempting to provide an unusual sort of overview, highlighting those areas in which computer simulations have made an important difference in the way we do research, and emphasizing some of the computational contributions that have provided unique and important insights into the nature of combustion itself. These range from cases in which modelling solved longstanding puzzles or problems, to cases in which modelling changed the views of the entire combustion community. We highlight the case of HCCI combustion, where the existence of a mature simulation capability has revolutionized the overall research plan for an industry; the HCCI may or may not make a significant impact on power production, but we emphasize it because it illustrates the nature of the research team of the present and future, and the complete integration of computer modelling into research and development. We finish by taking the pulse of the near future in scientific computing to see what is about to become possible in terms of addressing difficult problems that have never been solved, simply because of their size and complexity. Combustion is one of many disciplines imbedded in a scientific world where the power of the computer is driving much of our progress, and we want to provide a glimpse of the next generation of problems that will be enabled just by continued growth in computer capacity.

This review is necessarily unbalanced; for example, we focus on modelling of laminar premixed flames and devote no space to laminar diffusion flames. We also discuss models of internal combustion engines but omit gas turbines and furnaces. The inclusions and exclusions reflect the strengths and weaknesses in the experiences of the authors, and they also are motivated by the limited space and time available to us. However, we have tried to include those areas in which computer modelling has grown and then made significant technical advances. In some cases, our choices were simplified by the existence of a recent expert review in some area that we could cite for those interested in further information.

Fuente: Westbrook, C K ; Mizobuchi, Y ; Poinsot, T J ; Smith, P J ; Warnatz, J. (2004). Computational Combustion. Revista Electrónica: Energy Citations Database. Buscador: Scholar Google. http://www.osti.gov/energycitations/servlets/purl/15014799-PhugMg/native/.