1. Our Mission

To provide the next generation of combustion researchers, engineers and technologists with comprehensive fundamental knowledge of the fluid mechanics and chemical kinetics of reacting flows, for application in issues related to energy and the environment.

2. The 2025 Session

The 2025 session will offer the following five courses:

   • Dynamics of Flames and Detonations in Premixed Gas

   • Combustion Chemistry

   • Turbulent Combustion

   • Advanced Laser Diagnostics for Chemically Reacting Flows

   • Applications of Combustion Science to Fire Safety

3. Intended Participants

Graduate students, postdocs and faculty members in universities; combustion professionals in research organizations; R & D engineers in industries.

4. Program Dates

Arrival & Welcome Reception: Registration desk will be open on Sunday, July 6, 2025, from 10:00 am to 5:30 pm at Tsinghua University. This will be followed by an orientation and welcome reception in the evening at 6:00 pm.

Class Schedule: Classes will be held daily from Monday, July 7 to Friday, July 11.

Conference Dinner: A farewell dinner will be held on Thursday evening, July 10.

Departure: Lodging check out on Saturday, July 12.

5. Application

Applications are made online at

http://www.cce.tsinghua.edu.cn/en/Outreach/Combustion_Summer_School/Overview.htm starting from Monday, April 7, to Saturday, April 26, 2025. Admission decisions will be sent by Monday, May 26. Admitted applicants will be notified of the date by which the registration fee is due to complete the registration. Late applications may be considered depending on space availability.

6. Expenses

Registration: 2,200 RMB for students and 2,500 RMB for all other participants.

7. Course Selection

The courses on Dynamics of Flames and Detonations in Premixed Gas and Combustion Chemistry are the foundational combustion courses, suggested to be taken by first-time participants especially first-year students. The others are advanced, enrichment courses.

8. Further Inquiries 

For inquiries on the academic program or the logistics of participation, please contact the program administrator, Ms. Hong Tian, (86)10-62796768, ccess@tsinghua.edu.cn, or the program co-organizer, Prof. Yu Cheng Liu, ycliu7@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn   

9. Course Descriptions

9.1 Morning Sessions (please select one of the following two courses)

Combustion Chemistry

Lecturer: Philippe Dagaut, CNRS Orléans, France

Course Content: The course offers an introduction to the development of detailed chemical kinetic mechanisms for the description of the oxidation of hydrocarbons, commercial fuels, and renewable fuels, including biofuels and ammonia. It presents experimental techniques for model assessment, thermodynamics, and kinetics. Additionally, it discusses the importance of good experimental data used as validation targets. The course delves more deeply into reaction mechanisms involved in the oxidation of hydrogen to commercial and synthetic fuels, autoignition chemistry, the formation and reduction of pollutants, and combustion control.

Turbulent Combustion

Lecturer: Hong G. Im, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia

Course Content: This course offers an overview of the fundamental physics of turbulent reacting flows encountered in many engineering applications, followed by modern computational modeling approaches to predict the physical and chemical characteristics. The course starts with a review of the conservation equations in computational aspects, followed by the mathematical theory of laminar flames and statistical description of turbulence. Subsequently, phenomenological observations and scaling laws pertaining to turbulent combustion characteristics in different regimes are discussed. More in-depth coverage of mathematical modeling framework will then be covered in premixed, nonpremixed, and partially premixed combustion systems. Finally, recent advances in data-based reduced order models for turbulent combustion simulations are reviewed.

9.2 Afternoon Sessions (please select one of the following three courses)

Dynamics of Flames and Detonations in Premixed Gas

Lecturer: Paul Clavin, Aix-Marseille Université, France

Course Content: The course provides an overview of the fundamentals of the dynamics of shock waves, flames in premixed gas and detonations. A large variety of phenomena will be covered including ignition, quenching, cellular fronts, thermo-acoustic instabilities, direct and spontaneous initiation of detonations as well as recent advances in the understanding of the deflagration to detonation transition. Both experiments and theoretical analyses will be presented.

Advanced Laser Diagnostics for Chemically Reacting Flows

Lecturer: Mark Linne, The University of Edinburgh, UK

Course Content: This course combines both fundamental topics and applications for laser diagnostics in chemically reacting flows. Fundamental topics include: the equation of radiative transfer (including rate equations, absorption, emission, saturation, etc.), physical optics (wave equation, the Lorentz atom, light scattering, etc.), an introduction to quantum mechanics and how it enters into diagnostic expressions, basic atomic and molecular spectroscopy including example details on the OH molecule, statistical thermodynamics, development of resonance expressions (Einstein coefficients, absorption cross-sections, etc.), and the origins of spectral line shapes. The intention is to show students the level of detail required to perform high-fidelity measurements. These topics will be woven into more applied presentations on: how lasers work, particle image velocimetry and other forms of velocimetry (including optical flow), fuel spray diagnostics (SLIPI, 2-photon PLIF, & ballistic imaging), absorption-based techniques (line-of-sight, wavelength modulation, cavity-enhanced, and frequency combs), laser induced fluorescence, Raman scattering, and coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (especially the new picosecond/femtosecond varieties).

Applications of Combustion Science to Fire Safety

Lecturer: José L. Torero, University College London, UK

Course Content: The fire safety of our built environment, productive activities, urban wildland interface and forests is underpinned by the combustion processes controlling fires. Fire is a combustion phenomenon that evolves in space and time that has the potential to negatively affect people and property. Fire safety is our capacity to affect this combustion phenomenon in a manner that damage can be controlled to levels acceptable to society. Like other combustion processes, fire is controlled by complex chemical kinetics occurring in degrading fuels (pyrolysis) and in the gas phase (combustion), is determined by turbulent transport covering a wide range of turbulent intensities and results in complex heat exchange processes. These processes are strongly coupled and cover time scales from the nano-second to hours and length scales from the micro-metre to kilometres. Through this course, different processes will be explored in the context of uniquely complex fire safety applications (underground fires, fires originating in novel energy storage devices, combustible structures, etc.). Case studies will be presented where the combustion principles behind fires will be used to explain the phenomena and to address the methodologies and technologies commonly used to mitigate the destructive capability of the fire.