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Cantera Ignition Delay Calculator

Runs closed-reactor hydrogen/fuel ignition simulations and reports a checked ignition delay time

Source Download skill
Repository
K-Dense-AI/scientific-agent-skills
Stars
55,780
Licence
MIT
Files
4 files

What it does

This skill teaches an AI agent how to set up and run a combustion simulation using the Cantera chemistry library. It runs a closed, adiabatic, ideal-gas reactor (constant volume or constant pressure) and measures how long a gas mixture takes to ignite, defined as the moment of fastest temperature rise. It also re-runs the case with finer output, tighter solver settings, and a longer time horizon to check whether the answer is numerically stable, and checks that mass and energy are conserved.

Great for

  • Combustion researchers or engineering students comparing ignition delay under controlled conditions
  • Developers who need a reproducible, scripted Cantera calculation with saved reports
  • Analysts checking whether a kinetic mechanism reproduces a simple ignition case numerically

Skip it if

  • Flame speed or flame structure questions, since the skill explicitly is not a flame solver (it cannot model that physics)
  • Safety-critical decisions such as explosion limits or process design, since a successful run only shows the numerics worked, not that the mechanism is valid for the fuel, pressure or diluent
  • Real-world experiment validation without expert review, since the bundled example values are package regression values, not experimental data

Try asking

  • “Calculate the ignition delay of a hydrogen/oxygen/argon mixture at 1000 K and 1 atm at constant volume”
  • “Change the initial temperature and pressure in my JSON config and rerun the ignition delay helper”
  • “Compare ignition delay between two Cantera YAML mechanisms for the same mixture and explain the differences”
  • “Summarise the temperature history and conservation checks from my last ignition run”
Step-by-step guide: how to use Cantera Ignition Delay CalculatorInstall, first run, examples, tips and FAQs

Install in 3 steps

  1. 1

    Download the skill

    The ZIP contains the 4 original files, the MIT licence and an attribution note.

    cantera.zip
  2. 2

    Add it to your agent

    Claude Code (all projects)

    mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && unzip cantera.zip -d ~/.claude/skills/

    Claude Code / Agent SDK (this project only)

    mkdir -p .claude/skills && unzip cantera.zip -d .claude/skills/

    Claude apps (web/desktop): Settings → Capabilities → Skills → Upload skill, and choose the ZIP.

  3. 3

    Ask for the task

    No special command needed — the agent reads the skill's description and loads it when your request matches. Try one of the prompts above.

Get better results

  • Use a new output directory for every run, as the skill requires, so earlier results are not overwritten
  • Check the mechanism's validated temperature, pressure and fuel range before trusting a delay, and cite the mechanism source in your report
  • Read references/interpretation.md when comparing with experiments or when the run reports two-stage or unresolved ignition

What's inside

  • assets/hydrogen-ignition.json
  • references/interpretation.md
  • scripts/ignition_delay.py
  • SKILL.md

Redistributed unmodified from K-Dense-AI/scientific-agent-skills under the MIT licence. The assessment was drafted with AI from the skill's files on 2026-10-29. Skills can instruct your agent to run code — read SKILL.md and any scripts before installing.