The development of empirical correlations for major species yields in compartment fires has become an important priority due to the inability to calculate these quantities from first principles. Studies of simplified upper layer environments have shown that major species production rates can be correlated with the equivalence ratio in what is known as the Global Equivalence Ratio concept (GER). Due to the simplification in these past experiments, it was not known if the GER concept was valid for compartment fires. Therefore, there was a need to determine if correlations existed between major species yields and the equivalence ratio for actual compartment fires.A 2.2 m 3 test compartment was used to investigate the burning of four fuels (hexane, PMMA, spruce and flexible polyurethane foam) in compartment fires. The test compartment was specially designed with a two-ventilation path system which allowed the direct measurement of the plume equivalence ratio (the ratio of the fuel volatilization rate to the air entrainment rate normalized by the stoichiometric fuel-to-air ratio).Empirical correlations between the upper layer yield of major species and the plume equivalence ratio were shown to exist. The results reveal that the production of CO is primarily dependent on the compartment flow dynamics (i.e., the equivalence ratio) and upper layer temperature. The correlations developed in the compartment fires are qualitatively similar to those developed by Beyler for simplified upper layer environments. However, quantitative differences exist and can be explained in terms of temperature differences in experiments.

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It is known that many of the previously published global methane oxidation mechanisms used in conjunction with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes do not accurately predict CH4 and CO concentrations under typical lean-premixed combustion turbine operating conditions. In an effort to improve the accuracy of the global oxidation mechanism under these conditions, an optimization method for selectively adjusting the reaction rate parameters of the global mechanisms (e.g., pre-exponential factor, activation temperature, and species concentration exponents) using chemical reactor modeling is developed herein. Traditional global mechanisms involve only hydrocarbon oxidation; that is, they do not allow for the prediction of NO directly from the kinetic mechanism. In this work, a two-step global mechanism for NO formation is proposed to be used in combination with a three-step oxidation mechanism. The resulting five-step global mechanism can be used with CFD codes to predict CO, CO2, and NO emission directly. Results of the global mechanism optimization method are shown for a pressure of 1 atmosphere and for pressures of interest for gas turbine engines. CFD results showing predicted CO and NO emissions using the five-step global mechanism developed for elevated pressures are presented and compared to measured data.

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