Flow-distributed oscillations: stationary chemical waves in a reacting flow.

Abstract

A recent prediction of stationary waves in open, reacting flows is experimentally verified. We show that stationary waves are generated by a mechanism whereby the flow carries a time-oscillating subelement, behaving like a batch reactor, through space while a fixed boundary condition at the inflow locks the phase of the oscillation. This mechanism can generate stationary patterns when all diffusion coefficients are equal. The experimental system is the ferroin-catalyzed Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction in a tubular reactor, fed by the outflow of a continuous flow stirred tank reactor (CSTR). Parameter conditions are such that the concentrations are constant in the CSTR while they oscillate in the flow tube.