Two-step sequential reactions revisited

Abstract

One-dimensional, steady flame propagation for a sequential, two-step reaction of the form A → B → C is considered. An earlier investigation of the problem by Kapila and Ludford [ Combust. Flame 29:167 (1977)] determines that two separated flames generally exist and that their ordering is fixed by the ordering of the (disparate) magnitudes of the activation energies. The present work shows to the contrary that reversals of the flame ordering are quite possible, but that this is a subtle effect requiring attention to issues which are usually ignored in the theory of single flames.