Fundamentals of Combustion

Assignment 2

Assignment date: January 27, 2022 Due date: February 10, 2022

Problem 1:

In a global, single-step mechanism for butane combustion, the reaction order with respect to
butane is 0.15 and with respect to oxygen is 1.6. The rate coefficient can be expressed in
Arrhenius form: the pre-exponential factor is 4.16 ⋅ 109 [(kmol/m3)−0.75/s] and the activation
energy is 125,000 kJ/kmol. Write out an expression for the rate of butane destruction,
d[C4H10]/dt.

Problem 2:

In methane combustion, the following reaction pair is important:

where the reverse reaction coefficient is given by

kr (m6/kmol2-s) = 2.82 ⋅ 105 T exp[−9835/T].
At 1500 K, the equilibrium constant Kp has a value of 0.003691 based on a reference-state
pressure of 1 atm (101,325 Pa). Derive an algebraic expression for the forward rate coefficient kf.
Evaluate your expression for a temperature of 1500 K. Give units.

Problem 3:

Consider the following CO oxidation reactions:

where k1 (cm3/gmol-s) = 1.17 ⋅ 107 T (K)1.35 exp[+3000/RuT (K)], k2 (cm3/gmol-s) = 2.50 ⋅ 1012
exp[−200,000/RuT (K)], and Ru = 8.315 J/gmol-K. Calculate and compare the characteristic times
associated with these two reactions for T = 2000 K and P = 1 atm. The CO mole fraction is 0.011
and the OH and O2 mole fractions are 3.68 ⋅ 10−3 and 6.43 ⋅ 10−3, respectively.