Dynamic features of combustion

Abstract

The dynamic features of combustion arise from the evolution of exothermic energy and its deposition in the essentially compressible medium in which the process takes place. These features are exposed in representative cases that cover a wide spectrum of combustion phenomena, namely ignition, flame propagation, explosion, and detonation. Ignition and explosion are treated as problems in nonlinear mechanics dynamic properties of the system. Consideration of the turbulent flame propagation where the transformation to phase coordinates is instrumental in revealing the mechanism introduces a fascinating branch of combustion science: the aerodynamics of flames, a time-dependent treatment of the flow field where the unburnt and burnt mixtures are considered as incompressible media separated by an interface representing the flame front. The account of detonation phenomena is restricted to just the phenomenological aspects of their development and structure, illustrating vividly most of the dynamic features of combustion. Since they display the mechanism of feedback exerted by the combustion process on the flow field of the reacting medium, their study should be of particular significance to the development of controlled combustion systems: one of the most exciting prospects for energy conversion technology.