John Griffiths
+44 (0)113 3436406
| KEYWORDS
combustion chemistry |
RESEARCH INTERESTS
The major activity is concerned with the gas-phase combustion of hydrocarbons (cool flames and multiple stage ignitions), which is related both to combustion hazards which may arise from spontaneous ignition processes in the chemical industry and to the efficiency of reciprocating engines(the ignition process in diesel engines and the knock problem in spark ignition engines). The gap between the experimental measurements and theoretical interpretations of spontaneous ignition phenomena is bridged by numerical modelling studies, including the assessment of errors in the simulations arising from uncertainties in the paramater values for chemical reactions.
In industry the potential hazards may arise from (i) combustible fluids that may get trapped in insulation materials surrounding heated pipes, and (ii) fires that may result from the exothermic decomposition or oxidation of materials in a processing plant when they come into contact with a hot component.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
R. Fairlie, J.F. Griffiths, K.J. Hughes and H. Pearlman, Cool flames in space: experimental and numerical studies of propane combustion, Proc. Comb. Inst., 30, 1057, 2005
J.F. Griffiths, Combustion Kinetics, Chapter 1-13 in SFPE Handbook of Fire Protection Engineering, 4th Edition, Society of Fire Protection Engineers, 2008, ISBN: SKU36103
A.A. Burluka, J.F. Griffiths, K. Liu and M. Ormsby, Experimental studies of the role of chemical kinetics in turbulent flames, Combustion, Explosion and shock waves, 45, 383, 2009
K. J. Hughes, M. Fairweather J. F. Griffiths, R. Porter and A. S. Tomlin, The application of the QSSA via reaction lumping for the reduction of complex hydrocarbon oxidation mechanisms, Proc. Comp. Inst. 32, 543, 2009