MECH 558
Combustion

NASA Chemical Equilibrium Analysis Code

Computer Program for Calculation of Complex Chemical Equilibrium
Compositions, Rocket Performance, Incident and Reflected Shocks,
and Chapman-Jouget Detonations

 

Sanford Gordon and Bonnie McBride
NASA Glenn Research Center
21000 Brookpark Rd.
Cleveland, OH 44135

References:
NASA SP-273, 1971
NASA RP-1311, PART I, 1994
NASA RP-1311, PART II, 1996
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The NASA Chemical Equilibrium Analysis Code (CEA) was originally written in 1971 by Sanford Gordon and Bonnie McBride at NASA Lewis Research Center. For more information, including technical papers that describe the theory behind the program and a users manual, you can go to the following web site that is maintained by NASA. There is also a new GUI version of the code available.

http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/CEAWeb/

Here, I have made available a DOS executable version of the NASA CEA computer code is called cea300.exe.

You can download the necessary files to run the program here:

cea300.exe

thermo.lib

trans.lib

hp.inp

To run the code, click on the executable and it will open up a .dos shell.  The program will prompt you for an input data file.  Type in the file name, without an extention.  The program will generate an output file name called <filename.out>.

Information for installing the CEA program on a Mac can be found here.

Example 1.  Temperarature-Pressure Problem

An example input data file (tp.inp).  This file asks the program to calculate the equilibrium mole fractions at a given pressure (14.7 psia) and various temperatures (1000 to 4000 K) for initial conditions of 1 mole each of methane (CH4) and 2 moles of air.

problem tp equilibrium
case=8 p,psia=14.7 t(k)=1000,1500.0,2000.0,2500.0,3000.0,3500.0,4000.0
reactants
fuel = CH4 moles=1
oxid = O2 moles=2
oxid = N2 moles 7.52
output siunits
end

Download TP example tp.inp

Download TP example tp.out

Example 2. Adiabatic Flame Temperature Problem
An example input data file (hp.inp).  This file asks the program to calculate the adiabatic flame temperature and equilibrium mole fractions at a given pressure (14.7 psia) for a stoichiometric mixture of methane and air.

problem hp equilibrium
case=8 p,psia=14.7
reactants
fuel = CH4 moles=1 t(k)=298
oxid = O2 moles=2 t(k)=298
oxid = N2 moles=7.52 t(k)=298
output siunits
end

Download TP example hp.inp

Download TP example hp.out

For more information and to download a new version of the program with GUI, visit the NASA CEA Website:

http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/CEAWeb/