Combustion: introduction

T. Poinsot
Institut de Mcanique des Fluides de Toulouse (CNRS et INPT)
and
CERFACS
poinsot@imft.fr

1 www.cerfacs.fr/~poinsot Copyright Dr T. Poinsot 2013

OUTLINE OF PRESENTATIONS:
Introduction. The impact of combustion, simulation
methods, combustion regimes
Laminar combustion concepts required to study
turbulent flames
Turbulent combustion models- RANS, LES and DNS.
Short history and state of the art models
Numerical methods: RANS, LES and DNS. Boundary
conditions. High Performance Computing
Waves: numerical, physical waves, acoustics,
instabilities
Instabilities: mechanisms, thermoacoustics
Instabilities: case studies
Piston engines
Flame/wall interaction
2 Ignition
 Institut de Mcanique
des Fluides de Toulouse
and CERFACS

TOULOUSE

Textbook: Theoretical and numerical

combustion by Poinsot and Veynante
available at elearning.cerfacs.fr/combustion
(electronic access or paper version)

4
 FOR MORE BASICS:
The TNC book
elearning.cerfacs.fr/combustion

Elearning web site on combustion

and CFD www.cerfacs.fr/elearning

6
Reference to TNC book in these lectures:

Ch. 5 Sec 5.4.3

IMPORTANT EVENT IN 2014:

www.combustioninstitute.org/

8
 Combustion: more than 85 percent of
the energy produced on earth

10
 COMBUSTION OVERVIEW

Two important equations:

ENERGY ON EARTH TODAY =

COMBUSTION

ENERGY ON EARTH TOMORROW =

COMBUSTION

11

COMBUSTION SCIENCE MUST ALLOW THIS WITHOUT

INCREASING EMISSIONS, WASTING FOSSIL FUELS OR
MAKING CLIMATE CHANGE WORSE!
12
 Satellites

13

Ariane V Delta IV
Photo by Thom Baur The Boeing Company

14
 THE source of pollution:

15

Climate impact through emissions

16
 Even maybe a source of climate change through
CO2 emission but also contrails.

Ex: 11 september 2001

17

Dangerous technologies: control needed

18
19

Army applications

20
 In this course: many examples on gas turbines

1/ No other way to propel aircraft

2/ Highly efficient (60%), cheap,

flexible systems to produce
electricity (certain days, there is no
sun and no wind: for each windmill
plant, you need a gas turbine)

The gas turbine market grows. The regulations become

tougher => Optimization is mandatory !
21

OPTIMIZING SOMETHING WHICH HAS BEEN

HERE FOR 70 YEARS IS DIFFICULT
Example: the LOW NOX projects in Europe
(1995-2005) lead to combustor designs
which produced low NOX... but were
unstable -> thermoacoustics
Existing technology close to its limits

Compromises (efficiency, pollution, noise, W2 engine Sir F. Whittle

stability, cost) are difficult to find and
experimental costs too large to test all
possible designs
Simulation has become essential: gas turbine
companies now perform advanced CFD,
including LES. Developing numerical tools
which speed up developments is a key issue,
and they must include possible coupling
between all components of the engine: Main
topic of present talk

22

Copyright Schlter et al - Stanford CTR!

 WHICH PROBLEMS ?
MOST FEATURES OF GAS TURBINE CHAMBERS CAN BE
DESIGNED WITH REASONABLY SIMPLE TOOLS:
THERMODYNAMIC 0D TOOLS, SIMPLE 1D MODELS

CERTAIN PHENOMENA REQUIRE MORE COMPLICATED

TOOLS: DESIGN OF BLADES OR SHAPE OF THE
COMBUSTION CHAMBER. RANS (Reynolds Averaged Navier
Stokes) CODES ARE COMMON IN THIS FIELD

SPECIFIC PROBLEMS REQUIRE MORE SOPHISTICATED

TOOLS: HIGH PRECISIONS OR UNSTEADY: LES TOOLS ARE
NEEDED AND HAVE BEEN INTRODUCED IN THIS FIELD IN
THE LAST FIVE YEARS.

23

AND AN ADDITIONAL DIMENSION:

THE COMPUTATION OF EXISTING
COMBUSTION SYSTEMS IS NOT OUR ONLY
OBJECTIVE: WE MUST COMPUTE FUTURE
DESIGNS AND OPTIMIZE THEM

IT IS NOT ABOUT COMPUTING ONE

COMBUSTOR, IT IS ABOUT EXPLORING A
MULTIDIMENSIONAL SPACE OF ALL POSSIBLE
COMBUSTOR DESIGNS

24
 Complex technologies:

25

From small: the COX engine!

0.1 cm3!
0.3 horsepower!
25000 trs/min!

26 40!
 to big technologies:

Engineer naive question: how can combustion burn fuel and air in such
engines with so different sizes ? Well, the big engine turns more slowly
and has more time to burn.... But that is not sufficient to explain this.

For example: the same engine (in a motocycle) can work at idle (800
rpm) and high speed (16000 rpm) conditions ? Is combustion going
twenty times faster ? Does it mean that chemistry can go twenty times
faster ?
90 000 HP
Yes... turbulent combustion explains100
this.trs/min
It is both great (otherwise our
6000
engines would not work) and difficult
27 liters/hour
to explain...

Crucial technologies: gas turbines

28
 Gas turbines: small and big
Efficiencies:
40% Electric
60% Combined Cycles
80% Cogeneration
GT-26

50W 275 000 000 W

29

For soldiers and

maybe for cell phones

100 g of CH4 = 15
times more energy
than a 100 g battery

30
 Compressor Combustor Turbine

31

A SNECMA combustion chamber

(BURNER) (COMBUSTION CHAMBER)

32
33

Combustion: many complex things at

the same time

34
The engineering problem:
- Turbine should not burn
- Efficiency must be 99 %
- Nox and CO must be low
To turbine

Combustion and optimization:

How do we design dilution jets to reach all these goals
at the same time ?
35

Optimization can lead to instabilities:

Flame stabilized on a backward

facing step
Propane Fresh gas
+ air Burnt gas

NASA
1980
2000 im/s

36
 If the equivalence ratio is changed a little bit:

Combustion instabilities hurt:

Ariane IV
Saturne F1 engine
Post combustion
37
Alstom

A word on turbulence and instabilities:

Turbulent flows are all unstable in the terminology of fluid
mechanics experts. No laminar reacting flow of interest for
industry (except candles ?)
Turbulent reacting flows are stable for combustion experts as
long as they do not exhibit a significant instability which makes
them perform poorly or explode...
Turbulent stable Turbulent unstable

38
 Consequences of combustion
instabilities

Industrial gas turbine

39

Consequences of combustion
instabilities

Nasa Injector
(1957)

40
 Curing instability problems:
Since the F1 engine for Saturn V in the 60s, in most cases, trial
and error remains the preferred solution in practice...

41

F1 engine design

Initially unstable
The solution seemed to be to modify the fuel injectors and
add baffles... but how ?
1332 engine tests performed before 1966 to identify the stable
solutions (which also had to deliver the other performances)
Billions of dollars spent
Incompatible with present programs
NEED TO BE ABLE TO PREDICT INSTABILITIES AND MORE
GENERALLY UNSTEADY COMBUSTION

42
 CFD and combustion
CFD is essential but not yet able to do its job:

- kinetics + turbulence + radiation + heat transfer +

structures

- non linear ::> many surprises

+ quenching or non ignition
+ explosions and destructions
+ oscillations and limit cycles

43

Turbulence remains a major problem

Experiments or
LES DNS

RANS codes
Temprature

Time

44
 Do we really know what turbulence is ?

45

Is averaging a good idea ?

What does the mean mean ?
Gas turbines: averaging with time

Piston engines: cycle averaging

EXAMPLE: how to choose the place where youll live:

Temperature
+ 50

+ 20
Average

- 20

Time of the year

46
 In a turbine:
chamber temperature

Temperature leading to
Outlet combustion

the death of the turbine

Mean temperature

Time

47

Computing the mean: RANS

In labs in the 70s
In industry and commercial codes since 1980
Result conditioned by models
Difficult to provide predictive results for mean flows
Impossible to adress unsteady combustion (extinctions,
flashbacks) or combustion oscillations

Temperature field provided by RANS for a diffusion burner

48
 Other side of the spectrum: DNS
In labs for reacting flows since 1980 (France / USA)
No model
Intrinsically unsteady
Intrinsically limited to small cubic boxes

0.1 to 3 mm
49

DNS
In 1985:

ZOOM !

0.1 mm

10 m

RANS

50
 WHY IS THE MEAN NOT ENOUGH ?

Two examples:

A turbulent laboratory diffusion

flame

A piston engine

51

A comparison of RANS and LES

The ICLEAC burner (Ecole Centrale Paris): diffusion, 250 kW.

AIR

Propane

52
 Quartz window

53

Typical RANS result: one field of averaged values (here

temperature)

Rgime FUEL(g/s) AIR(g/s)

B 4,5 62,5

54
 LES:
1/ 3D
2/ Unsteady

K. Truffin, CERFACS
55

LES in piston engines: cycle averaging

In engines, cycle-to-cycle variations are a major issue
They are also a major problem for modeling:

Example of an extreme case:

Zero average
field

500 cycles followed by 500 cycles

56
 1,200 r/min
40 kPa MAP
standard valve
PIV data TDC
Reuss (1998) z = - 6.1 mm
Reuss (2000) ~70 mm circle
in 92 mm bore

90-cycle mean

two
individual
cycles

57 5 m/s

LES D. Haworth
General Motors/ Penn State

z Intake
Exhaust
x

1,200 r/min
y
58 40 kPa MAP
 720 1440
TCC
LES

TDC
z = -6.1 mm
1,200 r/min
40 kPa MAP 2160 2880
motored

tccles3
DCH
59 04-29-99

3600 4320
TCC
LES

TDC
z = -6.1 mm
1,200 r/min
40 kPa MAP 5040 6480
motored

tccles3
DCH
60 04-29-99
 LES of engine combustion (first time ever in 2006)

61 PhDs V. Granet, B. Enaux, L. Thobois CERFACS

[1/m] Flame surface density

-15 CAD
cycle 1 cycle 2 cycle 3

cycle 4 cycle 5 cycle 6

cycle 7 cycle 8 cycle 9

62
 [1/m] Flame surface density
-10 CAD
cycle 1 cycle 2 cycle 3

cycle 4 cycle 5 cycle 6

cycle 7 cycle 8 cycle 9

63

[1/m] Flame surface density

-5 CAD
cycle 1 cycle 2 cycle 3

cycle 4 cycle 5 cycle 6

cycle 7 cycle 8 cycle 9

64
 [1/m] Flame surface density
0 CAD
cycle 1 cycle 2 cycle 3

cycle 4 cycle 5 cycle 6

cycle 7 cycle 8 cycle 9

65

[1/m] Flame surface density

+10 CAD
cycle 1 cycle 2 cycle 3

cycle 4 cycle 5 cycle 6

cycle 7 cycle 8 cycle 9

66
 [1/m] Flame surface density
+20 CAD
cycle 1 cycle 2 cycle 3

cycle 4 cycle 5 cycle 6

cycle 7 cycle 8 cycle 9

67

[1/m] Flame surface density

+30 CAD
cycle 1 cycle 2 cycle 3

cycle 4 cycle 5 cycle 6

cycle 7 cycle 8 cycle 9

68
 6
2.5x10
experimental pressure enveloppe
experimental mean pressure
first LES cycle
LES cycles 2>9
2.0

1.5
P [Pa]

1.0

Experimental data

0.5

-80 -60 -40 -20 0 20 40

CAD

69

1995: LES
Use DNS-type codes for real configurations:

- Model small structures but keep the large ones DNS

- Diminish impact of models

- Access large scale structures

- in REAL CONFIGURATIONS RANS

- Marry DNS (for precision) and RANS (for meshes)

- Start from scratch: RANS codes cant do LES

70
 FIRST POINT: chemistry...

Combustion is the chemical

reaction of a fuel with an oxidizer
FUELS OXIDIZERS
H2 AIR or OXYGEN
Gas CH4 methane
C3H8 propane
CxHy and mixtures
of CxHy
Gasoline
Liquids Kerosene

71

Global chemistry and equivalence ratio:

Consider a moles of A (fuel) burning with b moles of B (air):

aA + bB --> P (global reaction)

Example:

H2+1/2O2 --> H20

Stoichiometric ratio:
s= (bWB ) / (aWA)
It takes s grams of B to burn 1 gram of A.
Example: s = 1/2 * 32/2= 8. It takes 8 g of oxygen to burn one
gram of hydrogen

72
 Equivalence ratio:

aA + bB --> P (global reaction)

The equivalence ratio is defined by = s YA/YB

Where = 1: the reaction is stoichiometric. After

combustion, no A or B will be left
If < 1, combustion is lean ==> oxidizer left after
combustion.
If > 1, combustion is rich ==> we waste fuel. There is
unburnt fuel in the burnt gases.

73

Detailed chemistry:

Consider A + B --> C (global reaction)

Example: H2+1/2O2 --> H20
At which speed does it progress ?

Need
-A
-B
- temperature

A, Ta are provided by kinetics.

74
 Chemical kinetics: the true story ?
H2 never meets O2 to produce H20
ELEMENTS
H O N
END
SPECIES
H2 O2 OH O H H2O HO2 H2O2 N N2 NO
END
REACTIONS
H2+O2=OH+OH 1.700E13 0.0 47780.
H2+OH=H2O+H 1.170E09 1.30 3626.
H+O2=OH+O 5.130E16 -0.816 16507.
O+H2=OH+H
H+O2+M=HO2+M
1.800E10 1.0
2.100E18 -1.0
8826.
0.
Standard CHEMKIN
H2/3.3/ O2/0./ N2/0./ H2O/21.0/
H+O2+O2=HO2+O2 6.700E19 -1.42 0.
H+O2+N2=HO2+N2 6.700E19 -1.42 0.
OH+HO2=H2O+O2 5.000E13 0.0 1000.
H+HO2=OH+OH 2.500E14 0.0 1900.
O+HO2=O2+OH 4.800E13 0.0 1000.
OH+OH=O+H2O 6.000E08 1.3 0.
H2+M=H+H+M 2.230E12 0.5 92600.
H2/3./ H/2./ H2O/6.0/
O2+M=O+O+M 1.850E11 0.5 95560.
H+OH+M=H2O+M 7.500E23 -2.6 0.
H2O/20.0/
HO2+H=H2+O2 2.500E13 0.0 700.
HO2+HO2=H2O2+O2 2.000E12 0.0 0.
H2O2+M=OH+OH+M 1.300E17 0.0 45500.
H2O2+H=H2+HO2 1.600E12 0.0 3800.
H2O2+OH=H2O+HO2 1.000E13 0.0 1800.
END

75

LEAN COMBUSTION RICH COMBUSTION

= =
CLEAN COMBUSTION CO
CHx
in the burnt gas

Equivalence ratio
=1
76
 FLAMMABILITY DOMAIN FOR A PERFECTLY PREMIXED GAS

LEAN EXTINCTION LIMIT

RICH EXTINCTION LIMIT

= 0.3 to 0.7 =1 = 2 to 4 Equivalence
ratio

77

Chemical kinetics take place in fronts:

flames
0.1 mm

Initial state Burnt state

CH4, O2, N2 CO2, N2, CO, NO, etc

Temperature
Distance

Intermediate species (of the order of 30 for CH4)

78
 Example: the laminar Bunsen flame

Burnt gas

Flame front (visible because of radicals)

CH4 + air

79

It takes three to burn. Regimes depend on A and B mixing:

PREMIXED: A and B are mixed first and burnt afterwards

A+B

DIFFUSION: A and B are stored separately. They mix

AND burn at the same time

A B

80
 PREMIXED:

The most efficient CH4 + Air

The cleanest
The most dangerous
No smoking

DIFFUSION (also called non premixed):

Less efficient
Less clean CH4 Air
Less dangerous

No possible ignition

81

82
IN PRACTICE:

- Want to store reactants separately for

safety

BUT

- Burn in a premixed mode for

performance and pollution

Combustion devices need fast mixing

systems
83

Problem: this strategy can lead to unexpected

phenomena. Example: instabilities or flashback.
Injection
Injecteur
Mixing tube
Chambre de combustion
Combustion chamber
Fuel

Air

84
 WHY LPP ?: Nox grows rapidly with temperature
Injector
Stoichiometric line
Fuel
Very hot zone (2500 K)
==> High Nox emission
Very rich zone
Combustion chamber
Air
Equivalence ratio :
Injector - Homogeneous
Stoichiometric line - Low ! (0.4 to 0.6)
Fuel
Burnt gases at low
temperature
(1500 K)
Premixing tube
Air Combustion chamber
85

What engineers expected:

Mixing tube
Combustion
chamber
Kerosene

Air

Combustion
chamber
Kerosene

Air What happens sometimes

86
 Very worrying. Difficult to predict
==> need new methods ==> LES

Liogne stoechio Computational domain

C3H8
Fuel

First computation ever of flashback:

2D - 1999

87

1998: the stable flame

Axial velocity
Stoechiometric line

Reaction rate

Temperature

88
 Simulation of a regime change: the power is
reduced by a factor of two.

Axial velocity
Stoechiometric line

Reaction rate

Symmetry axis

Temperature

89

And the consequences:

90
 Another classification of flames:
We have classified flames in premixed, diffusion and
other (partially premixed) flames
But there is a second (and very important in practice)
way to classify flames:

UNCONFINED FLAMES: many theoretical approaches

assume free flames (the 1D premixed laminar flame, the perfect
strained planar diffusion flame, the turbulent jet flames of the
TNF workshop (see www.sandia.gov/TNF))

CONFINED FLAMES: in practice, 99 % of the useful flames

are confined either to recover heat (furnaces) or mechanical
power (engine)

91

Confined vs unconfined flames: what

is the difference ?

The velocity fields are different because

of density changes due to dilatation
There are walls everywhere ! Heat
transfer becomes important
Acoustics can become important and UNCONFINED
induce combustion instabilities which are
dominating multiple present programs CONFINED
In codes: simply taking into account the
complex geometry forces us to change
(completely) our codes !

92
 Meshes and codes:

SIMPLE GEOMETRIES
(UNCONFINED):
STRUCTURED MESHES
HIGH ORDER IS EASY

REAL FLAMES (CONFINED)

UNSTRUCTURED MESHES
HIGH ORDER IS TOUGH
==> NEW CODES !

93

DNS usually performed in unconfined cases

C3H8/air flame DNS

Full chemical scheme
Jimenez et al, Comb and Flame 2002.

94
 Poinsot et al, 1996. 26th Symp. (Int.) on Comb.
95 Naples. Plenary session on DNS for reacting flows

DNS almost used

in real cases

Takahasi, 30 th Symp. On Comb.

96
97

Chen et al
31st Symp.

98
 LES in confined domains...

Moureau et al Comb. Flame 2011

99

OPTIMIZATION: THIS IS WHAT

INDUSTRY REALLY WANTS

How many holes? where ? shape of the chamber to:

minimize pollutant and instabilities
minimize weight and consumption
homogeneize temperature field in outlet plane 100
 QUANTIFICATION OF UNCERTAINTIES: THIS IS WHAT
INDUSTRY IS REALLY WORRIED ABOUT
Of course, we need codes to
compute the mean temperature
at each point...
But can we believe the results ?
What is the possible dispersion
of the results ?
Do they depend strongly on the
numerical parameters of the
code (mesh ? scheme ?)
Do they depend on the flow
parameters (flow rate,
equivalence ratio) ?
Do they depend on small
geometry changes ? 101

So... what are we going to discuss here ?

TURBULENT COMBUSTION (INCLUDING INSTABILITIES)

NUMERICAL COMBUSTION (INCLUDING CODES

DESCRIPTIONS AND MODELS)

THIS WILL REQUIRE THEORETICAL BASIS ON

COMBUSTION AND LAMINAR FLAMES WHICH WE WILL
DISCUSS FIRST (THIS WILL BE FAST: MOST OF THIS
HAS ALREADY BEEN DISCUSSED IN H. PITSCHs AND
M. MATALONs COURSES)

102
 BUT COMBUSTION IS NOT ONLY THESE
FOUR FIELDS. WE WILL ALSO DISCUSS
COMPLEXITIES IN COMBUSTORS
The classical topics studied in combustion courses do
not correspond to the everyday life of engineers
studying real combustors

Other phenomena have to be taken into account

A short overview of what is done in practice in codes:

103

WHAT DO WE CALL COMPLEXITY ?:

Complex chemistry Complex chemistry
Simple geometry Complex geometry
Simple flows Complex flows

FROM
TO

104
 ZERO DIMENSIONAL FLAMES (PSR):

dT
Cp = T
dt
FUEL + AIR

d(Yk )
= k
dt

Kinetics Thermo
chemistry
105

Well mixed box with fresh premixed gas at

initial temperature T

Solve for T(t)

T(t)

T
Time

Autoignition
delay
106
 ONE-DIMENSIONAL LAMINAR FLAMES
(CANTERA/CHEMKIN/COSILAB):
Oxidizer
x1

Flame (x1=xf)

x2

Fuel

No fluid mechanics: flamelet equations

EM2C lab
only. The flow field is imposed:

u1 = 0 ax1
Kinetics Transport Thermo
chemistry u2 = 0 ax2
107

MULTI-DIMENSIONAL LAMINAR FLAMES:

PhD Y. Dhue IMFT

Kinetics Transport Thermo Fluid

chemistry mechanics
108
 TURBULENT UNCONFINED FLAMES
(TNF workshop type)

Turbulence

J. Chen
Kinetics Transport Thermo Fluid Sandia EM2C Paris
chemistry mechanics
109

TURBULENT UNCONFINED FLAMES

Industry type

Turbulence Radiation
High Re

Kinetics Transport Thermo Fluid

chemistry mechanics
110
 AFTER THIS POINT: FORGET SIMPLE
GEOMETRIES

We will see that as soon as complicated shapes must be

computed, the whole code has to be rewritten

The implications of this statement on modeling are very

strong and cant be ignored: the problem becomes now a
coupled problem of modeling + numerical accuracy

Numerical accuracy and especially our capacity to mesh

precisely the geometry becomes the first-order difficulty

111

TURBULENT CONFINED FLAMES

Acoustics

Turbulence Radiation

PhD M. Leyko CERFACS

Kinetics Transport Thermo Fluid
chemistry mechanics
112
 TURBULENT CONFINED FLAMES AND
IMPACT ON WALLS

Acoustics Heat transfer

Turbulence Radiation

Kinetics Transport Thermo Fluid

chemistry mechanics
113

TURBULENT CONFINED FLAMES AND

IMPACT ON WALLS... WHEN WALLS MOVE !
Fluid/structure
interaction
PhD J. Richard, CERFACS 2012

Acoustics Heat transfer

Turbulence Radiation

Kinetics Transport Thermo Fluid

chemistry mechanics
114
 IMPLICATIONS FOR CODES AND MODELS:

Fluid/structure The best codes and models for a real

interaction application are not always the best codes
and models for individual problems.

Acoustics Heat transfer For a real application, the limiting part of

the code is the weakest element in all of
them.
Turbulence Radiation Depending on your background, you will
see the weakest link at different places...

Kinetics Transport Thermo Fluid

chemistry mechanics
115

IF WE INCLUDE NUMERICAL METHODS:

Mesh type Spatial order Time integration

Fluid/structure (structured/ (high-order?) (implicit/explicit)
interaction unstructured)
Finite volume/ Boundary
elements/ conditions
Acoustics Heat transfer differences
Others? High Performance
Computing
capacities
Turbulence Radiation (massively //)

Maintenance,
adaptability
Kinetics Transport Thermo Fluid Coupling
chemistry mechanics (multiphysics)
116
 AND ALSO THEMES WHICH MIX
COMBUSTION AND MATHS:
Mesh type Spatial order Time integration
Fluid/structure (structured/ (high-order?) (implicit/explicit)
interaction unstructured)
Finite volume/ Boundary
elements/ conditions
Acoustics Heat transfer differences
Others? High Performance
Computing
Optimization capacities
Quantification of (massively //)
Turbulence Radiation uncertainties
Data assimilation Maintenance,
adaptability
Kinetics Transport Thermo Fluid Coupling
chemistry mechanics (multiphysics)
117

DONT BE A PERFECTIONIST...

P. ORourke
KIVA Manual

DONT FOCUS ON
PHENOMENA JUST BECAUSE
YOU KNOW THEM.... FOCUS
ON THE WEAKEST LINK
118
CAREFUL: the weakest link depends on
the case. The example of rocket
combustion. From H2/O2 to CH4/O2 flames

H2/O2 combustion is so fast (flame speeds up to 30 m/s) that it can be

supposed to be infinitely fast.
This simplifies significantly the modeling of the turbulent diffusion flame
(see section on turbulent flames)
119

But suppose you replace CH4 by H2...

Then the fast chemistry assumption is gone. You will

have to go back all the way to the turbulent combustion
model and restart from scratch. Probably need to resolve
the flame front structure
It may be impossible because the resolution of the
chemical scales might require too many grid points
But it is difficult to explain to the end user that H2 was
easy and CH4 is not...

120
 H2

O2

H2

O2
121