Flames in Fluids: Their Interaction and Stability

Viewed on a hydrodynamical scale, a flame may be considered as a surface of discontinuity, separating burned from unburned gas. Unlike earlier treatments, the present study accounts for flame structure, i.e., accounts for the details of chemical reactions and transport processes, and their interaction with the fluid flow. A model, including the effects of flame structure, is derived in coordinate invariant form. It consists of the fluid equations, to be solved on either side of the flame, an evolution equation describing the deformation of the front, and jump conditions for the fluid variables across the front. The model describes the dynamics of flame fronts including their stability. In particular, we study the stability of both plane and curved flames, and discuss the effect on stability of flame front curvature, heat release, Lewis number and Prandtl number.