Thermal explosion characteristics in a reduced kinetics model

Abstract

The problem of thermal explosion arising from a spatially homogeneous reduced five steps reaction kinetic model, which comprises of the chain initiation, chain propagation/branching and chain termination steps is considered. By assuming realistic approximations, the pertubation technique was used to obtain expressions for thermal ignition time for the adiabatic system. In the non-adiabatic system, expressions for the critical heat loss parameter and the ignition temperature in the line of Semenov theory have been obtained. Analysis of the system involving some parameters, and the contributions of the heat released due to the termination reactions on the behaviour of the ignition times and Semenov parameters have been carried out and expressed graphically. Apart from confirming known results in literature, the results shed more light on hitherto unknown behaviour.