Reduced kinetic mechanism of ignition for nonpremixed hydrogen/air in a supersonic mixing layer

Transient ignition processes in a two-dimensional spatially evolving supersonic mixing layer consisting of a parallel nonpremixed airstream and a hydrogen stream both with temperatures higher than 1000 K were investigated numerically by using the full chemistry and its reduced chemistry. A phenomenon different from that examined in previous studies, in which ignition of hydrogen/oxygen mixtures was considered, was found in the nonpremixed case examined here. It was shown that the concentration of O was greater than that of OH before ignition, but became smaller with the development of ignition process. Fourteen important reactions for ignition were obtained and verified using sensitivity analyses of ignition delay time and radical concentrations. Several different four-step and three-step reduced kinetic mechanisms were then deduced by introducing the steady-state approximation to different species. Comparison of these reduced kinetic mechanisms with the full chemistry showed that the steady-state approximation of O used in previous studies caused serious errors in the prediction of ignition delay time in supersonic flow, in which nonpremixed character is predominant and the transport phenomenon is important. Ignition locations predicted with the proper four-step and three-step reduced kinetic mechanisms were within 5% and 20% of those predicted with the full chemistry. Finally, these two reduced mechanisms were used to evaluate the effect of viscous dissipation on ignition in the supersonic shear layer. Good agreements between the results of the present reduced kinetic mechanisms and those of the full chemistry were obtained.