Abstract

A mixture-fraction-based thermodynamic equilibrium approach for modeling gas-phase combustion was adapted and used in FIRETEC, a wildfire computational fluid dynamics model. The motivation behind this work was the desire to incorporate the features of complex chemistry calculations from the thermodynamic equilibrium model into FIRETEC without significantly increasing the computational burden of the program. In order to implement the mixture-fraction-based thermodynamic equilibrium approach, a sub-grid pocket model was developed to simulate the local mixture fraction of sub-grid flame sheets. Numerical simulations of wildfires were performed using FIRETEC with the new sub-grid, mixture-fraction-based pocket model to model gas-phase combustion. The thermodynamic equilibrium model was used to calculate flame temperatures and combustion products, including CO2 and CO, for sub-grid, gas-phase combustion in FIRETEC simulations. Fire spread rates from simulations using the new sub-grid combustion model were 25-100% higher than fire spread rates from previous FIRETEC simulations, but the successes of modeling propagating fire lines and calculating detailed equilibrium combustion products from simulated sub-grid flame sheets demonstrated the feasibility of this new approach. Future work into the fine-tuning of pocket model parameters and modifying the conservation equation for energy in FIRETEC was recommended.

Degree

PhD

College and Department

Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering and Technology; Chemical Engineering

Rights

http://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/

Date Submitted

2008-07-01

Document Type

Dissertation

Handle

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd2446

Keywords

Wildfire model, gas phase combustion model, FIRETEC, mixture fraction model, pocket model, equilibrium model

Language

English

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