Properties of combustion waves in a model with competitive exothermic reactions

Abstract

We study the properties of travelling combustion waves in a diffusional thermal model with a two-step competitive exothermic-exothermic reaction mechanism. This investigation considers the system in one spatial dimension under adiabatic conditions. Based on the notion of the crossover temperature, the model is examined analytically using the activation energy asymptotic method to predict travelling combustion wave behaviour in the limit of large activation energies. The model is then studied numerically using a shooting-relaxation method over a wide range of parameter values, such as those describing the ratios of enthalpies, pre-exponential factors and activation energies. It is demonstrated that the flame speed as a function of these parameters is a single-valued monotonic function and there are two flame regimes identified—each region representing parameter values when one reaction dominates the other.