EXPERIMENTAL AND COMPUTATIONAL STUDY OF IGNITION AND FLAME PROPAGATION IN INTERNAL-COMBUSTION ENGINES

Chemically reacting flows such as those found in combustion in the ear th's atmosphere, in hypersonic flow, or in chemical engineering are ve ry important processes, but much less well understood than non-reactiv e flows because of the multiscale nature and complexity of the chemica l processes involved, Only recently have methods been developed to gen erate the typically very large reaction mechanisms, to reduce them wit hout substantial loss of information, to couple them with flow process es, and to verify computational results with the help of measurements by non-intrusive laser-based experimental methods, This is a particula rly formidable task in the case of turbulent reacting flow, Some chara cteristic examples of combustion processes in internal combustion engi nes are presented here to demonstrate progress in this field.