INFLUENCE OF NATURAL CONVECTION ON STABILITY OF AN INCLINED FRONT PROPAGATION

Abstract

This research work may be considered as a continuation of a seriesof investigations concerning the ináuence of natural convection on stability ofreaction fronts propagation. We consider an inclined propagating polymerization front. The governing equations consist of the heat equation, the equationfor the depth of conversion for one-step chemical reaction and of the NavierStokes equations under the Boussinesq approximation. We Örst perform aformal asymptotic analysis in the limit of a large activation energy to get anapproximate interface problem. Then, we fulÖll the linear stability analysis ofthe stationary solution and Önd the perturbation equations. A meshless collocation method based on multiquadric radial basis functions has been appliedfor numerical simulations. The conditions of convective instabilities obtainedare in good agreement with some previous studies. This shows that the proposed approach is accurate and that it helps in describing the ináuence of thepropagation direction on stability of polymerization fronts.