UCK 427E - Combustion

Course Objectives

Acquire research tools and methodologies to solve combustion related
problems in a carbon constrained world.
• Combustion is a mode of chemical conversion of energy. Several fuels, gaseous liquid or solid, may undergo combustion chemical reactions provided that enough oxidant and ignition heat source are provided.
• Several combustion regimes can be engineered such as laminar or turbulent / premixed or non-premixed / subsonic or supersonic / subcritical or supercritical under various pressure / initial temperature / mixture composition / gravitational conditions.
• Unwanted combustıon phenomena may also occur such as fıres and explosıons.
• Combustion science and technology has today attained a very significant
advancement level, developing experimental, theoretical, computational approaches using several advanced research tools such as laser diagonstics, chemical kinetics and turbulence, theoretical modelling and various numerical approaches, including direct numerical simulations.
• An important feature of combustion studies is their strong interdisciplinary nature mobilizing knowledge areas ranging from chemical kinetics to turbulence, heat transfer, physics, thermodynamics, optics, analytical technics, spectroscopy, and applied mathematics.
• Combustion is today at the heart of energy and environmental challenges. Burning carbon containing fuels emits C2, cause of global warming, and also many other pollutants such as particulate matter and NOx that are hazardous for human health.
• The task for combustion science and technology today is to conceive and optimize new fuels and non-polluting / low / zero carbon emission chemical conversion systems.
• The main topics are combustion of hydrogen and hydrogenated fuels / oxycombustion and carbon capture / energy valorization of organic waste materials by various gasification and pyrolysis processes / hydrogen generation by coal gasification, metal hydrolysis, natural gas pyrolysis / burning of sustainable aviation fuels…
• The course will provide the necessary research and engineering tools for future engineers to become familiar with the state of the art studies in modern combustion science and technology areas

Course Description

Development of the course
Oriented towards problem solving capacities acquisition
Combustion (or more generally chemical conversion of energy) being an interdisciplinary research and technology domain, several knowledge areas and R&D techniques are needed to be mobilized. Most of the individual knowledge areas composing the combustion domain
are today consigned in textbooks (thermodynamics, transport phenomena, fluid mechanics and turbulence, heat transfer, materials sciences, computational reactive fluid dynamics, optical and laser-based
measurement techniques…).
• Acquiring this archival knowledge will be essentially based on the students’ efforts with the guidance of the instructor. The course topics listed below will be particularly deepened in the weekly courses. A list of major combustion textbooks are provided below and they will be specified for various course contents.
• Attendance of weekly courses is obligatory.
• Grades will be assigned based on students’ performances in midterm exams1 or 2 depending on the progress of the learning process but the total weight for midterms will be 30%), final exam/or term project (40%), homework (30%). The exams willjudge multifaceted problem-solving capacity of the students and will be based not on equation writing or solving but on real problem solving in a complex situation with
various constraints, mostly combustion related technical but not only.
• Term projects will be selected by the students or assigned by the instructor related to
the weekly course topics or from the research projects that the instructor and his research team are developing.
• The goal of the course is to prepare combustion engineering students to outstanding academic carriers in aerospace propulsion & defense and energy & environment related advanced knowledge and technology areas, or to high level executive management carriers in Turkish or international companies in related industrial activity domains, or to entrepreneurship experiences in their own innovative start-up projects.