CEA is a program which calculates chemical equilibrium product concentrations from any set of reactants and determines thermodynamic and transport properties for the product mixture. Built-in applications include calculation of theoretical rocket performance, Chapman-Jouguet detonation parameters, shock tube parameters, and combustion properties. A two-part publication describes the program and its use. Part I outlines the theoretical principles used in the program. Part II is the user's manual.

• Part I: Analysis (NASA RP-1311) .

Part I presents in detail a number of topics of general interest in chemical equilibrium calculations. These topics include mathematical analysis and techniques for obtaining chemical equilibrium; formulas for obtaining thermodynamic and transport mixture properties and thermodynamic derivatives; criteria for inclusion of condensed phases; calculations at a triple point; inclusion of ionized species; and various applications, such as constant-pressure or constant-volume combustion, rocket performance based on either a finite- or infinite-chamber-area model, shock wave calculations, and Chapman-Jouguet detonations.

• Part II: Users Manual and Program Description (NASA RP-1311-P2) .

The user's manual is intended to facilitate the use of CEA for solving thermodynamic and combustion problems. Various topics are discussed such as preparation of input files, the format of the output, and a discussion of the program's overall organization. Also discussed are the formats used for the associated thermodynamic and transport data files. A number of examples are given to illustrate the program's versatility. The CEA program is written in ANSI standard FORTRAN 77 by Bonnie J. McBride and Sanford Gordon.

• Related Publications:
  
  • McBride, B.J., M. J. Zehe, Dr.and Gordon, S.:
    NASA Glenn Coefficients for Calculating Thermodynamic Properties of Individual Species
    NASA TP-2002-211556, 2002.
    
  • McBride, B.J., Gordon, S., and Reno, M.A.:
    Thermodynamic Data for Fifty Reference Elements.
    NASA TP-3287/REV1, 2001.
    (same as TP-3287, 1993 with added table of contents and some corrections to Table V).
  • Gordon, S., and McBride, B.J.:
    Thermodynamic Data to 20 000 K for Monatomic Gases.
    NASA TP-1999-208523, 1999.
  • Svehla, R.A.:
    Transport Coefficients for the NASA Lewis Chemical Equilibrium Program.
    NASA TM-4647, 1995.
  • McBride, B.J., and Gordon, S.:
    Computer Program for Calculating and Fitting Thermodynamic Functions.
    NASA RP-1271, 1992.