Theoretical nitric oxide production incidental to autoignition and combustion of several fuels homogeneously dispersed in air under some typical hypersonic flight conditions

A reaction package of 100 chemical reactions and attendant reaction rate constants defined for the autoignition and combustion of four carbonaceous fuels, CH4, CH3OH, C2H6, and C2H5OH. Definition of the package was made primarily by means of comparison between trial calculations and experimental data for the autoignition of CH4. Autoignition and combustion of each of these four fuels was calculated under three sets of conditions realistic for hypersonic flight applications, for comparison to hydrogen fuel, particularly with respect to formation of nitric oxide. Results show that, for all of the fuels including hydrogen, if NO production is a significant problem, compromise must be made between approaching equilibrium heat release and approaching equilibrium NO concentration.