MIN-540

Combustion
Ajit K Dubey
Lecture 1: Why, what and how?
 Combustion
• Heat release from chemical reactions
• Fuel + oxidizer = products + heat

https://www.britannica.com/science/Bunsen-burner/images-
videos#/media/1/84759/246192
Source: worldenergydata.org
 Power generation in India
RES: Renewable energy sources
Problems:
1) May not be available when
required
2) Fluctuating in supply
3) Cannot be stored as it is

Huge requirement of energy

storage technologies

Example: Battery, pumped

storage, hydrogen, ammonia, e-
fuels, thermal etc.

Source (mospi.gov.in) Energy statistics India 2023, Chapter 2

 Why do we need to study combustion?
• Energy production through fossil fuel
• Pollution control for energy sources
• Energy utilization for renewables
Why do we need to study combustion? [2]
• Industrial burners and furnaces
• Household burners and heaters

By ANDRITZ Maerz GmbH - ANDRITZ Maerz GmbH, CC BY 3.0,

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16972811
Source: Borosil website
Why do we need to study combustion? [3]
Google news search for fire
ØFire as a safety hazard
ØUncontrolled and
unwanted combustion
ØAt large scale
 Why do we need to study combustion? [4]
• Explosions
• Blast waves
• High energy materials
• Propellants and explosives

By PDphoto.org - http://pdphoto.org/PictureDetail.php?mat=pdef&pg=834
(archive), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1

Source: India times

 How do we study combustion
• Experimental methods • Conservation equations
• Theoretical • Mass (species)
• Momentum
• Numerical
• Energy
• Combination of these

• Constituent disciplines • Some targets

• Thermodynamics • Find a combustion parameter
• Chemical kinetics
• Fluid mechanics
• Design an equipment
• Heat and mass transfer • To simulate a combustion process
• CFD (Numerical methods for stiff PDEs) • Understanding and interpreting
• Instrumentation and diagnostic techniques observed combustion phenomena
• Mathematics • Determining effect of
• Acoustics individual/several parameter/s on
• Compressible flows the combustion process
Classification of combustion problems

Source: POC book, Kuo

Combustion modeling

Source: POC book, Kuo