UC3M

UC3M


A MATLAB-GUI based open-source tool for solving gaseous combustion problems

CT layout

CT layout

Robust modular kernel

Robust, modular, and fast chemical equilibrium computations.

Interactive App

The code is encapsulated in a user-friendly GUI with tons of capabilities.

Open source

Completely open source, GUI included!
GitHub GPLv3

Combustion Toolbox in action#

 

Combustion Toolbox capabilities#

Robust chemical equilibrium computations

TP HP SP TV EV SV frozen plasma state

Interactive App

Over 10K lines of code encapsulated in a user-friendly GUI with tons of capabilities. Toolbox Standalone (royalty-free)

Shocks and detonations pre- and post-shock states

Incident Reflected Oblique Shock polar Detonations polar Regular Reflections

Open source

Completely open source, GUI included! GitHub FileExchange Zenodo GPLv3

Rocket propellant performance

Infinite-Chamber-Area Finite-Chamber-Area

Extensive database with NASA’s 9-coefficient polynomial fits up to 20000 K

NASA Burcat ATcT

Excellent agreement with NASA's CEA, Cantera, Caltech's SD-Toolbox, and TEA
Predefined plots
Export results

.xls .mat

Compatible

Windows Linux Mac

Combustion Toolbox [Cuadra et al., 2024] is a GUI-based thermochemical code written in MATLAB with an equilibrium kernel based on the mathematical formulation set forth by NASA in its CEA code [Gordon and McBride, 1994]. The thermodynamic properties of the gaseous species are modeled with the ideal gas equation of state (EoS), and an up-to-date version of NASA’s 9-coefficient polynomial fits from [McBride, 2002, Burcat and Ruscic, 2005, Ruscic et al., 2005]. CT is a new thermochemical code written from scratch in a modular architectural format composed of three main modules: CT-EQUIL, CT-SD, and CT-ROCKET.

  • CT-EQUIL: computes the composition at the equilibrium of multi-component gas mixtures that undergo canonical thermochemical transformations from an initial state (reactants), defined by its initial composition, temperature, and pressure, to a final state (products), defined by a set of chemical species (in gaseous—included ions—or pure condensed phase) and two thermodynamic state functions, such as enthalpy and pressure, e.g., for isobaric combustion processes.

  • CT-SD: solves steady-state shock and detonation waves in either normal or oblique incidence.

  • CT-ROCKET: computes the theoretical performance of rocket engines under highly idealized conditions.

Even though all modules are enclosed in a user-friendly GUI, they can also be accessed from MATLAB’s command line (in plain code mode).

There is a fourth closed-source (i.e., proprietary) module, CT-EXPLO, that estimates the theoretical properties of high explosive mixtures and multi-component propellants with non-ideal EoS. Although still under development, CT-EXPLO is distributed in its current form as the thermochemical module of SimEx [Sánchez-Monreal et al., 2022] subject to a proprietary license. Further details on this module will be provided elsewhere.

This MATLAB-GUI thermochemical code represents the core of an ongoing research work the has been used to investigate a series of problems during the last few years [Sánchez-Monreal et al., 2022, Cuadra et al., 2020, Huete et al., 2021, Cuadra et al., 2023].

Start here!#

Tutorials

New to Combustion Toolbox?

Examples

See how the toolbox can be used in practical scenarios.

API Documentation

Let’s check the documentation of almost (every) functions.

Contributing#

Please send feedback or inquiries to acuadra@ing.uc3m.es

Thank you for testing the Combustion Toolbox!

Acknowledgements#

  • Combustion Toolbox’s color palette is obtained from the following repository: Stephen (2021). ColorBrewer: Attractive and Distinctive Colormaps (https://github.com/DrosteEffect/BrewerMap), GitHub. Retrieved December 3, 2021.

  • For validations, Combustion Toolbox uses CPU Info from the following repository: Ben Tordoff (2022). CPU Info (https://github.com/BJTor/CPUInfo/releases/tag/v1.3), GitHub. Retrieved March 22, 2022.

  • Combustion Toolbox’s splash screen is based on a routine from the following repository: Ben Tordoff (2022). SplashScreen (https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/30508-splashscreen), MATLAB Central File Exchange. Retrieved October 15, 2022.

  • Combustion Toolbox’s periodic table layout is based in the following repository: Bruno Salcedo (2018). latex-periodic-table (https://github.com/brunosalcedo/latex-periodic-table), Github. Retrieved October 15, 2022.

People#

Grupo de Mecánica de Fluidos, Universidad Carlos III, Av. Universidad 30, 28911, Leganés, Spain

See also the list of contributors who participated in this project.

Citing Combustion Toolbox#

If you use the Combustion Toolbox in a publication, please cite it using the following reference:

  • Cuadra, A., Huete, C., & Vera, M. (2024). Combustion Toolbox: A MATLAB-GUI based open-source tool for solving gaseous combustion problems. (v1.0.5). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5554911.

  • Cuadra, A. (2023). Development of a wide-spectrum thermochemical code with application to planar reacting and non-reacting shocks. PhD thesis, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Available at http://hdl.handle.net/10016/38179.

It can be handy the BibTeX format:

@misc{combustiontoolbox,
    author  = "Cuadra, A. and Huete, C. and Vera, M.",
    title   = "{Combustion Toolbox: A MATLAB-GUI based open-source tool for solving gaseous combustion problems}",
    year    = 2024,
    note    = "Version 1.0.5",
    doi     = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5554911}
}

@phdthesis{cuadra2023_thesis,
    title   = {Development of a wide-spectrum thermochemical code with application to planar reacting and non-reacting shocks},
    author  = {Cuadra, A.},
    year    = 2023,
    month   = {May},
    address = {Madrid, Spain},
    note    = {Available at \url{http://hdl.handle.net/10016/38179}},
    school  = {Universidad Carlos III de Madrid},
    type    = {PhD thesis}
}