The effect of the large hydrogen dissociation activation energy on an equilibrium-broadened hydrogen-oxygen diffusion flame

Abstract

The structure of a hydrogen-oxygen diffusion flame under equilibrium conditions is dominated by the influence of the equilibrium constant for the hydrogen dissociation-recombination reaction. An attempt to continue a previous solution, which used the method of matched asymptotic expansions, to higher orders of approximation led to difficulties of a numerical kind as a result of the large rate-of-change of this equilibrium constant with temperature. It is shown how the matter can be resolved by using the asymptotic expansion method with the small parameter (reciprocal of the equilibrium constant) treated as a function of temperature; the solutions follow from a simple iterative procedure.