Flame structure and reaction kinetics: The effects of the pre-exponential frequency factor, reaction order, and activation energy

Abstract

This paper is concerned with studying the effect of the global-reaction-rate parameters, the pre-exponential frequency factor, the reaction order, and activation energy on the internal structure of a premixed propane-air laminar-flame system propagating between parallel plates. The flame structure (namely, the fuel-species concentration, flame temperature, and volumetric heat-release-rate distributions inside the flame) is obtained for a certain fixed set of reaction parameters by the numerical solution of the appropriate partial-differential equations, which govern the propagation of the flame between parallel plates. The results show a large effect for the reaction parameters on the flame structure, where the increase in the pre-exponential frequency factor and the decrease in the reaction order and activation energy generally cause much steeper variations of flame variables inside the flame, a hotter reaction zone and much higher volumetric heat-release rates.