Chemistry

The focus of the Aerochemistry research group is divided among two areas: the validation of non-equilibrium chemistry and radiation models associated with shock-tube experiments performed by the EAST facility at NASA Ames and quantification of uncertainty in the modeling of combustion kinetics.

Towards the shock-tube validation efforts, non-equilibrium chemistry and radiation models were developed as well as a simple one-dimension compressible flow solver to model the shock tube experiments. The goal is to exercise the validation cycle, using the QUESO software package, on this simpler, but still quite complicated, problem and demonstrate the effectiveness of the validation cycle.

The focus of the work on chemical kinetics is to use experimental data to quantify measurement and modeling errors in reaction rate parameters using the QUESO software package. Further, new algorithms are being developed towards the design of experiments to better inform the desired reaction rate parameters.

• Study data reduction techniques used in data obtained in EAST shock tube experiements
• (In)Validate models used for modeling shock tube experiements using the validation cycle and QUESO
• Study kinetics involving cyano species at lower temperatures 3000K~5000K using systems of ODE’s
• Quantify measurement and modeling errors in reaction rate parameters
• Explore experimental design in context of chemical kinetics and determination of reaction rate parameters