DESIGN TOOLS
COMBUSTION
ON A CHEMICAL
LEVEL
Software and engineering services from Reaction
Design used to analyze combustion process
BY MIKE MERCER
As emissions, power and engine efficiency expectations increase, fuel costs rise and the trend toward
alternative fuels grows, engineers are considering
the most minute details to develop the cleanest possible
combustion processes. To do this, the combustion process is
now being analyzed at a chemical level, and San Diego,
Calif.-based Reaction Design’s products are engineered to
assist this process.
“The goal of Reaction Design is to build a product that
empowers the transportation and energy industries to
develop the cleanest possible combustion systems with a
comprehensive and easy-to-use set of software simulation
tools, chemical models and expert consulting services,”
As demands on new engines increase, engine manufacturers are
looking at every detail of the engine design to find ways of reduc-
ing emissions, and to increase power output and fuel efficiency.
Reaction Design provides software to assist in this process.
www.vibratechtvd.com
180 Zoar Valley Road
Springville, NY 14141
716.592.1000
said Bernie Rosenthal, chief executive officer of Reaction
Design. “The majority of the companies we work with are
focused on combustion, and as a result want to figure out
how to utilize fuel more productively and how to minimize
the emissions associated with that process.”
Reaction Design was founded in 1995 and was granted
exclusive rights to CHEMKIN software by Sandia National
Lab in 1997. It introduced the KINetics module for CFD in
2000, and in 2002, the company introduced its first internal
combustion engine model for CHEMKIN. It formed its current leadership team in 2005. In 2006, the CHEMKIN 4. 1
package was introduced, and the company also formed its
Model Fuels Consortium.
“We believe a lot of what is driving the development of
internal combustion engines is in the chemical reactions,”
said Rosenthal. “Chemical reactions have to do with everything from the efficiency of fuel, to stability issues of combustion and what can be done in terms of lean/rich combustion strategies. If you look at emissions, the industry is
really starting to focus on particulate matter and efficiency.
“The emission regulations are continuing to make their
way into law on a worldwide basis on light- and heavy-duty
engines of all types. They are more stringent and they are
covering more types of emissions as well. It is what I call
the parts per million becoming the parts per billion.
“We’re now at a point where just simply using the empirical methods that we’ve used before is not going to give
engineers accuracy needed to understand what’s coming
out of the engines. This counts for particulate matter, NOx,
CO and increasingly for CO2, as concern about global
warming rises. What is changing is the designer’s ability to
use estimations or stripped-down models that do not
include all of the detailed information.”
