1.2. Overview of the Chemkin Software

Ansys Chemkin includes a large choice of Reactor Models that address industry-specific reacting-flow conditions. The User Interface facilitates problem set-up by guiding user inputs and allowing visual construction of reactor-network diagrams for modeling complex systems. The built-in visualization options provide quick graphic representation of results, as well as the ability to easily export data for use in 3rd-party analysis tools, such as Excel®.

In addition to the flexible suite of user-configurable Reactor Models, you can also access a set of core utilities through the Ansys Chemkin Application Programming Interface (Chemkin/API), which facilitates construction of custom, Chemkin applications through C/C++ or Fortran programming. In this way, Chemkin products provide a broad capability that addresses needs of both non-expert and expert users.

Ansys Chemkin Reactor Models often align with the needs of specific industries. A summary of the different reactor models and flow components available is given in Table 1.1: Reactor models: Descriptions, along with a brief description of each. The components of the Chemkin/API Core Utility set are listed in Table 1.2: Chemkin/API Modules (Core Utilities).

In addition to the Ansys Chemkin Reactor Models described in Table 1.1: Reactor models: Descriptions, there are complementary modules that work in conjunction with some or more of the Reactor Models. For example, Chemkin includes the optional Reaction Workbench feature within Chemkin, for controlling mechanism reductions. This module is described in detail in Chemkin Reaction Workbench User's Manual.

Table 1.1: Reactor models: Descriptions

Icon

Reactor Model Component

Description

 

Inlet Source

External source for inlet gas.

 

Initialization

External source of initialization.

 

Outlet

Outlet flow (product) of reactor or network of reactors — indicates no further processing of the gas.

 

Gas Mixer

Non-reactive gas mixer, which accepts multiple inlets.

 

Gas Flow Splitter

Splits a gas stream into multiple streams.

 

Equilibrium

Chemical and phase equilibrium calculations.

 

Mechanism Analyzer

Mechanism analyzer tool, for analyzing thermochemical, transport, and kinetic data included in a chemistry set.

 

Multi-zone HCCI Engine

Closed, internal multi-zone combustion engine model that allows definition of any number of zones within the engine cylinder to account for stratification of temperature and composition, for prediction of emissions and ignition timing.

 

SI Engine Zonal Simulator

Closed, internal multi-zone combustion engine model that allows knock assessment.

 

IC HCCI Engine

Closed, homogeneous, internal combustion engine simulator, for in-cylinder compression-ignition studies.

 

DI Diesel Engine Simulator

Transient spray-combustion model for the direct-injection internal combustion engine.

 

Closed Homogeneous Reactor

Transient, closed, homogeneous system or batch reactor.

 

Closed Partially Stirred Reactor (Closed PaSR)

Transient, closed, partially stirred or un-mixed reactor, which determines rate limitations between mixing and kinetics.

 

Closed Plasma Reactor

Transient, closed, well mixed plasma reactor.

 

Ignition Progress Variable Library

Transient, closed, partially stirred or un-mixed reactor for specifying Ignition Progress Variables.

 

Perfectly Stirred Reactor (PSR)

Transient or steady-state perfectly stirred reactor, also known as continuously stirred tank reactor (CSTR).

 

Plasma Stirred Reactor (Plasma PSR)

Transient or steady-state well mixed plasma reactor.

 

Closed Multiphase Reactor

Transient, closed, homogeneous system or batch reactor for multiphase liquid- and gas-phase reactions.

 

Multiphase Stirred (MP PSR) Reactor

Transient or steady-state perfectly stirred reactor, for multiphase liquid- and gas-phase reactions. PSR is also known as continuously stirred tank reactor (CSTR).

 

Partially Stirred Reactor (PaSR)

Open, partially stirred or un-mixed reactor for determining rate limitations between mixing, kinetics, and flow.

 

Plug-flow Reactor (PFR)

Plug-flow reactor, where convection dominates transport.

 

Plasma Plug-flow Reactor

Plasma reactor under plug-flow conditions.

 

Planar Shear Flow

Shear-flow reactor, which accounts for boundary-layer effects in planar channels.

 

Cylindrical Shear Flow

Shear-flow reactor, which accounts for boundary-layer effects in cylindrical channels.

 

Honeycomb Monolith

Plug-flow fixed-bed catalyst reactor with internal surface area defined by honeycomb properties and catalyst loading.

 

Pre-mixed Burner

1-Dimensional, pre-mixed, laminar, burner-stabilized flame.

 

Pre-mixed Stagnation Flame

1-dimensional, pre-mixed, laminar, burner-stabilized stagnation-flow flame, where the flow stagnates against a planar surface perpendicular to the flow from the burner.

 

Flame Speed Calculator

1-dimensional freely propagating flame for determining pre-mixed, laminar flame-speeds.

 

Flame-speed Table Generator

Table Generator that uses the Flame-speed Calculator to export a table of laminar flame speeds over a range of operating conditions, including dilution. This table can be imported into the Ansys Forte CFD simulation package for use in turbulent-flame-speed correlations for flame propagation in 3-D engine simulations.

 

Opposed-flow Flame

Diffusion (non-premixed) or pre-mixed opposed-flow flame.

 

Extinction Flame Simulator

Model used to determine the extinction strain rate for either premixed or non-premixed flames under opposed-flow flame conditions.

 

Diffusion Flamelet Generator

Diffusion (Opposed-flow) Flamelet Generator which uses Scalar Dissipation Rate based formulation

 

Stagnation Flow

Transient or steady-state stagnation-flow (shower-head) chemical vapor deposition (CVD) or atomic layer deposition (ALD) reactor.

 

Rotating Disk

Transient or steady-state, stagnation-flow (shower-head) chemical vapor deposition (CVD) or atomic layer deposition (ALD) reactor with a rotating disk.

 

Incident Shock

Normal incident shock, used to simulate shock-tube experiments.

 

Reflected Shock

Normal reflected shock, used to simulate shock-tube experiments.

 

LPCVD Thermal Analyzer

Thermal analysis module for low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) batch furnace reactors, which determines the 2-D temperature map in a furnace reactor considering wafer stack, quartz enclosure and radiant heaters.

 

LPCVD Furnace

Multi-wafer reactor model used to determine deposition uniformity for a given temperature field in a low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) batch furnace reactor.


Table 1.2: Chemkin/API Modules (Core Utilities)

Core Utility

Description

Gas-phase Kinetics

Pre-processor and subroutine library for the analysis of gas-phase chemical and plasma kinetics

Surface Kinetics

Pre-processor and subroutine library for the analysis of heterogeneous chemical kinetics at a solid-surface/gas-phase interface

Gas Transport

Pre-processor and subroutine library for the calculation of transport properties for gas-phase species and their multicomponent mixtures.

Thermodynamic Data

Thermodynamic property database and the FITDAT data-fitting utility

FITDAT

Module (Twopnt) for solving two-point boundary-value problems using a modified Newton iteration method