A computer model has been developed to study the autoignition of hydrogen + air. The model simulates the continuous flow device of Freeman and Lefebvre, and assumes convection dominated transport processes. One dimensional flow is modeled with a total of 9 chemical species and 17 elementary reactions included. All reaction rate data are drawn from published literature values. Reverse reactions are included for each elementary reaction with reverse rate coefficient values determined utilizing the JANAF thermochemical tables.
Results for ignition delay time are obtained for various values of pressure and temperature. The effects of equivalence ratio, fluid velocity and wall heat loss on autoignition delay time are presented.
Model predictions of major and minor species concentration profiles are presented, as are the individual contributions from each elementary reaction to the total production rate of each chemical species. These two sets of information allow identification of the relative importance of the reactions leading to autoignition.
Finally, model results will be compared with the shock tube study of Meyer and Oppenheim, and will be shown to be in qualitative agreement with the results of that study.