Traveling waves along the front of a pulsating flame

Journal Article · Tue Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 1982 · SIAM J. Appl. Math.; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1137/0142035· OSTI ID:6644727

Matkowsky, B J ^[1]; Olagunju, D O ^[1]

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1. Northwestern University, Evanston, IL

A diffusional-thermal model describing the combustion of a premixed gas is considered. It is shown that a uniformly propagating plane flame is unstable to two-dimensional disturbances when the Lewis number L exceeds a critical value L sub c. A nonlinear analysis is employed to show that for L greater than L sub c two types of solutions bifurcate from the uniformly propagating plane flame. One type corresponds to a pulsating flame with traveling waves along its front while the other corresponds to a pulsating flame with standing waves along its front. The latter describes a pulsating cellular flame. A linear stability analysis of the bifurcated states shows that the traveling wave solutions are stable and the pulsating cellular solutions are unstable. The analysis also shows that the average speeds of the pulsating solutions are less than that of the uniformly propagating plane flame.

• DOE Contract Number: AC02-78ER04650
• OSTI ID: 6644727
• Journal Information: SIAM J. Appl. Math.; (United States), Journal Name: SIAM J. Appl. Math.; (United States) Vol. 42; ISSN SMJMA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
400800* -- Combustion
Pyrolysis
& High-Temperature Chemistry
658000 -- Mathematical Physics-- (-1987)
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
CHEMICAL REACTION KINETICS
COMBUSTION KINETICS
FLAME PROPAGATION
FLUID FLOW
FLUID MECHANICS
HYDRODYNAMICS
KINETICS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MECHANICS
REACTION KINETICS
STABILITY
TRAVELLING WAVES
UNSTEADY FLOW
WAVE PROPAGATION