Application of reduced chemical kinetic model for ethylene combustion in combustor calculation of HIFiRE

In order to assess the influence of chemical kinetic models on the computational results of scramjet, a software package for reduced chemical kinetics (SPARCK) was used based on quasi-stationary state approximation and specifically developed for chemical reaction kinetics reduction, and a reduced chemical kinetic model with 20 species and 16 global reactions was achieved by reducing the detailed chemical kinetic model for ethylene combustion. Then, the ignition delay time of ethylene was calculated with the reduced model and another reduced model generated by Princeton University. The computational results showed two reduced models almost had the same ignition delay time, and achieved a good agreement with experimental results. Both models can describe the ignition characteristic of ethylene. The Hypersonic International Flight Research Experimentation (HIFiRE) direct-connect test was numerically simulated using two reduced chemical kinetic models. The computational results showed two reduced chemical kinetic models had big difference in the static temperature of combustor, with nearly 12% relative error in the flowpath thrust. The reduced model, obtained by SPARCK, showed better agreement with experimental data for wall pressure distribution, as compared with the Princeton University model, and could simulate accurately combustion phenomena in scramjet combustor.