Abstract
Mathematical formulation and modeling of combustion processes is an important tool in the understanding of this phenomenon. Determination of equilibrium temperature and composition is often the first stage in calculation of combustion characteristics. There are number of different techniques for simulation of combustion process. In this study a basic model has been developed based on the minimization of Gibb's free energy to simulate the combustion processes. A nonlinear mathematical optimization has been developed based on Lagrange multipliers and solved using Quasi‐Newton method written in MathCAD environment. The effect of various parameters such as initial temperature, pressure, and equivalence ratio on the equilibrium temperature and composition has been investigated. In contrast with the equilibrium constant method, obtained results out of this work show that the maximum flame temperature for normal paraffins occurs around the equivalence ratio of 1.05. In addition, from environmental point of view, effects of different conditions on the emission of pollutants in a combustion process have been studied. The simulation results showed that the NO and NO~2~ emission rates pass through a maximum point and there is an optimum point where the NOCO emission could be minimized. Copyright © 2010 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.