Path: ccsf.homeunix.org!ccsf.homeunix.org!news1.wakwak.com!nf1.xephion.ne.jp!onion.ish.org!news.heimat.gr.jp!taurus!newsfeed.media.kyoto-u.ac.jp!newsfeed-east.nntpserver.com!nntpserver.com!chi1.usenetserver.com!atl-c02.usenetserver.com!news.usenetserver.com!peer01.cox.net!cox.net!p01!fed1read07.POSTED!53ab2750!not-for-mail Message-ID: <41B8A5AD.80E06D51@hate.spam.net> From: Uncle Al Organization: The Noble Krell X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.78 [en] (Win98; U) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: fj.sci.physics,sci.physics,sci.physics.computational.fluid-dynamics,sci.physics.cond-matter,ut.physics.general Subject: Re: Simple gas combustion References: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Lines: 37 Date: Thu, 09 Dec 2004 11:21:17 -0800 NNTP-Posting-Host: 68.5.212.127 X-Complaints-To: abuse@cox.net X-Trace: fed1read07 1102620064 68.5.212.127 (Thu, 09 Dec 2004 14:21:04 EST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 09 Dec 2004 14:21:04 EST Xref: ccsf.homeunix.org fj.sci.physics:1089 Phil wrote: > > Hi! > This is my first time posting here (5 newsgroups). > I sure would appreciate some advice on a couple of things. > > First, what volumetric ratio is the optimal mixture for combustion of butane > with air at STP? Depends what you want out. For raw temperature, a stoichiometric mix in pure oxygen. If you wnat to get work out of it in a real world engine, other considerations intrude. > What temperature is required to initiate the combustion reaction? Not temp necessarily, energy input. Look up sparks and explosions. A little Pt catalyst may set it off spontaneously. It is a free radical chain - exponentiation chugs along. > At what rate would a combustion front propagate through this mixture? Depends. Confined or unconfined? Shape? Surface/volume ratio? Deflagration, explosion, or detonation? > If volume is held constant before and after combustion, by what amount will > the temperature of the mixture have increased after the reaction? > Finally, if the mixture is made leaner, will the temperature increase be > reduced roughly proportionally to the amount of fuel present? Doesn't that sound like a poorly stated p-chem homework problem, folks? -- Uncle Al http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/ (Toxic URL! Unsafe for children and most mammals) http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/qz.pdf