We present a numerical simulation of an axisymmetric, laminar diffusion flame with finite rate chemistry on serial and distributed memory parallel computers. We use the total mass, momentum, energy, and species conservation equations with the compressible Navier-Stokes equations written in vorticity-velocity form. The computational algorithm for solving the resulting nonlinear coupled elliptic partial differential equations involves damped Newton iterations, Krylov-type linear system solvers, and adaptive mesh refinement. The results presented here are the first in which a lifted diffusion flame structure is obtained on a nonstaggered grid. The numerical solution is in very good agreement with previous numerical and experimental data.

Key words: combustion, finite rate chemistry, vorticity-velocity, nonlinear methods, iterative methods, parallel computers.

AMSMOS Classification: 80A32, 80-08, 65C20, 65N20, 65F10.