A reduced thermal diffusion model for H and H2

This work details the development of a new, reduced thermal diffusion model. The proposed model derives from the thermal diffusion model of Chapman and Cowling (1970). In its derivation, a set of mixture-averaged like approximations are made, which results in the number of operations being reduced from O(n2) to sub-linear, where n is the number of species in the chemical model. With these approximations, the new, reduced model thermal diffusion coefficients can be calculated independently for each species. The model is validated against multicomponent thermal diffusion cases using multiple fuel and diluent mixtures at various pressures, temperatures, and equivalence ratios. The resulting reduced model thermal diffusion fluxes agree well with the multicomponent values, with a multiplicative scaling factor identified using a least squares regression. Unstretched laminar flame speeds are compared using the multicomponent and newly developed models. Finally, an a posteriori comparison in a turbulent configuration shows excellent agreement of both the mean and fluctuations of the thermal diffusion coefficients.