A nonlinear theory of cellular flames

Journal Article · Sun Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 1980 · SIAM J. Appl. Math.; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1137/0138039· OSTI ID:6044111

Matkowsky, B J ^[1]; Putnick, L J ^[2]; Sivashinsky, G I ^[3]

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1. Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill.
2. Siena College, Loudonville, N.Y.
3. Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

Experiments with laminar flames in gaseous combustible mixtures show that for certain mixtures a flame front will often break up into numerous cells. This paper uses a model derived by Matkowsky and Sivashinsky (1979) to consider the stability of a uniformly curved propagating flame front. It is shown that the uniform front becomes unstable if the Lewis number L of the limiting reaction component is less than some critical number L(c), and if the radius of the front is greater than a critical value R(c). When the critical values are exceeded, perturbations of the uniform front evolve to a cellular front with bifurcates supercritically from the uniform front.

• OSTI ID: 6044111
• Journal Information: SIAM J. Appl. Math.; (United States), Journal Name: SIAM J. Appl. Math.; (United States) Vol. 38; ISSN SMJMA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
400800* -- Combustion
Pyrolysis
& High-Temperature Chemistry
COMBUSTION PRODUCTS
FLAME PROPAGATION
FLAMES
FLUID FLOW
LAMINAR FLOW
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
PERTURBATION THEORY
STABILITY