Comparison of four combustion models for simulating the premixed combustion in inert porous media

This work reports one-dimensional predictions of methane/air fuel combustion in inert porous media using four combustion models: full mechanism (FM, 49 species and 227 elemental reactions), skeletal mechanism (SM, 26 species and 77 elemental reactions), 4-step reduced mechanism (4RM, 9 species) and 1-step global mechanism (1GM). The effects of these models on temperature, species, burning speeds and pollutant emissions are examined. The calculations are compared with available experimental data. It is concluded that the already known limitation of the 1-step global mechanism can be partially eliminated by the present 4-step reduced mechanism. This 4RM model compares very satisfactorily with the full mechanism in the simulation of combustion in porous media. This conclusion is encouraging for the simulation of practical porous media burners because the 4RM model improves the stability of the calculation process and can be used with reduced computational resources and cost. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.