Marangoni-driven nonlinear dynamics of bimolecular frontal systems: a general classification for equal diffusion coefficients

Abstract

When bimolecular fronts form in solutions, their dynamics is likely to be affected by chemically driven convection such as buoyancy- and Marangoni-driven flows. It is known that front dynamics in the presence of buoyancy-driven convection can be predicted solely on the basis of the one-dimensional reaction–diffusion concentration profiles but that those predictions fail for Marangoni-driven convection. With a two-dimensional reaction–diffusion–Marangoni convection model, we analyze here convective effects on the time scalings of the front properties, together with the influence of reaction reversibility and of the ratio of initial reactants’ concentrations on the front dynamics. The effect of buoyancy forces is here neglected by assuming the reactive system to be in zero-gravity condition and/or the solution density to be spatially homogenous. This article is part of the theme issue ’New trends in pattern formation and nonlinear dynamics of extended systems’.