Laminar Flames of Methane: How Fast, How Thick, and Why It Matters

Laminar-flame properties provide a stringent baseline for validating turbulence–combustion closures and for prescribing spatial-temporal resolution in reactive-flow CFD. The goal of this research is to generate a comprehensive database of premixed methane flames with the open-source library Cantera version 3.1.0, and to explore the difference between pure oxygen versus atmospheric air in modulating the the laminar-flame characteristics of methane detailed finite-rate kinetics are supplied by GRI-Mech 3.0, and the one-dimensional, adiabatic solver is executed over pressures 0.5- 25 bar, unburned temperatures 300-900 K, and equivalence ratios 0.6≤ϕ≤1.40. for both CH4​/O2​ and CH4​/air mixtures. The laminar flame speed, temperature change, induction length​, and peak heat-release rate for stoichiometric, lean and rich mixtures are evaluated as a function of the unburnt pressure and temperature and data-fitting is performed to obtain the functional relation. The differences between oxygen and air with CH4 are evaluated in terms of induction length scales and heat release rate. The induction length and the flame speed will provide a grid resolution and the time-stepping for CFD algorithm.