The Path Flux Analysis Method

Path flux analysis (PFA) is a method, similar to DRG, for the generation of skeletal mechanisms (Sun et al. 2010 Gou et al. 2013). In the PFA method, the production and consumption fluxes are used to identify the important reaction pathways. The first-generation production (Pa) and consumption (Ca) fluxes of species A are calculated according to equations 

At each time step, production and consumption flux ratios and are 

An iterative process is used to find the path fluxes of each selected species. Starting from the set of important species, using the relation Tab , the set of other necessary species are identified. These are added to the investigated set, and the iterative process is continued until no new necessary species are found. Gou et al. (2013) used the PFA method to create a dynamic adaptive chemistry scheme for n-heptane and n-decane combustion mechanisms. 

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