On Rational Parametric Interpretation of Some Combustion Phenomena
Chung K. Law
Princeton University
The reporting and understanding of scientific phenomena are frequently communicated through the relation between input and response parameters. Consequently, the communication could be inadvertently biased or misleading when such parameters are either not appropriate or optimum. The seminar will demonstrate such inappropriateness through examples of the definitions/interpretations of the mixture equivalence ratio, molecularity vs. reaction order, the role of density on quantifying convective and diffusive transport, and the role of diffusion on the controlling kinetics. The above concerns will be illustrated through responses of the homogeneous mixture, the planar premixed flame, the counterflow flame, and the droplet diffusion flame.
Chung K. Law received his PhD from the University of California at San Diego in 1973, and currently is the Robert H. Goddard Professor at Princeton University and the founding director of the Center for Combustion Energy at Tsinghua University. His research interests are in combustion, propulsion, heat and mass transfer, energy, alternative fuels and the environment. He has published over 550 journal papers, with an SCI h-index of over 70, and has received a number of honorific professional awards. He is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering; a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the American Physical Society, and the Combustion Institute. He is also a former president of the Combustion Institute.