Finite differences study of ignition in a methane-air mixture flow

A detailed simulation of the ignition process and premixed flames propagation, taking into account molecular transport, chemical reaction, thermodynamics and convection, is built by making use of the implicit finite difference scheme with the help of the Tridiagonal Matrix Algorithm. The velocity of chemical reaction is expressed by means of Arrhenius form of first order in both fuel and oxygen. The main objective of this work is to define numerically in two cases, it = 0.1 m/s and u = 0.4 m/s, the ignition temperature of the methane-air mixture with different air excess coefficients in the mixture. In addition, the effect of the thickness of the region ignition and of ignition location on the transient behavior of the flame was studied. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.