Combustion and Flame 182 (2017) 167178

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Combustion and Flame

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/combustflame

Controlling of ame propagation in a composite solid energetic

material: From stabilization to chaotic regimes
Vadim N. Kurdyumov a,, Vladimir V. Gubernov b,d, Roman V. Fursenko c,d
a
Department of Energy, CIEMAT, Avda. Complutense 22, Madrid 28040, Spain
b
P.N.Lebedev Physical Institute, 53 Leninsky pr., Moscow 119991, Russia
c
Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, Novosibirsk 630090, Russia
d
Far Eastern Federal University, 8 Suhanova St., Vladivostok 690950, Russia

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The ame propagation in a solid composite energetic sample comprised of a solid energetic annulus
Received 20 December 2016 surrounding a highly conductive core is investigated using one-step Arrhenius reaction mechanism. The
Revised 7 March 2017
steady-state solutions, its linear stability analysis and the results of direct numerical simulations of non-
Accepted 14 April 2017
stationary problem are presented. It was found that the ame dynamics is highly subject to variation in
the presence of the conductive core leading in some cases to a chaotic ame behavior or to stabiliza-
Keywords: tion of the ame propagation. It was demonstrated that for given combustion properties of the energetic
Combustion waves material the kind of ame dynamics observed in the composite sample can be controlled by an appro-
Thermal-diffusive instabilities priate choice of the experimental parameters such as the thickness of the fuel annulus deposited or the
Composite energetic materials
diameter of the heat conductive core.
Flame oscillations
2017 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The onset of pulsations quite often accompanies the propaga-
tion of combustion waves in solid combustion fuels. One of the
rst experimental observation was reported in [1]. In the lat-
ter experimental papers [2,3] it was demonstrated that pulsations
are of auto-oscillatory nature and that complex temporal regimes
can emerge as the bifurcation parameters (mixture dilution) are
modied. Besides planar one-dimensional oscillations in cylindri-
cal solid fuel samples multidimensional regimes of ame propaga-
tion such as spinning waves were found while conducting the self-
propagating high temperature synthesis [4,5]. More detailed de-
scription of the variety of spatio-temporal wave patterns observed
in combustion of solid fuels can be found in reviews [68].
Systematic mathematical analysis of oscillatory ame propaga-
tion regimes began with the publication of the results in [9], where
it was demonstrated by means of numerical modeling that the pla-
nar ame pulsations are of diffusional-thermal nature and can be
described within the models which take into consideration heat
release occurring in course of fuel consumption and heat diffu-
sion from hot products to the fresh mixture. Further advances in
the analysis of ame pulsations came from the employment of the
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: vadim.k@ciemat.es (V.N. Kurdyumov).
asymptotic analysis [10]. It was demonstrated that the planar com-
bustion wave loses stability due to the Hopf bifurcation and the
critical parameter values for the onset of oscillations and character-
istics of these oscillating regimes were determined. These ndings
were later conrmed in numerical analysis in [11,12].
In the case of the cylindrical geometry it was shown [13] that
as the diameter of the sample is increased either traveling or one-
dimensional pulsating instabilities occur, which can result in the
emergence of spinning or pulsating regimes of combustion wave
propagation. The results of the stability and bifurcation asymptotic
analysis in the limit of the large activation energy are summarized
in [14]. Extensive numerical results of combustion wave propa-
gation in cylindrical samples were presented in [1519] where
the emergence of different nonstationary and/or multidimensional
regimes of ame propagation was reported. In [20] the numeri-
cal stability analysis of combustion wave propagation in cylindrical
fuel sample was undertaken and the formation of different modes
of spinning waves was directly related with the global stability
characteristics of two-dimensional traveling wave solutions.
Initiated by the works in [21,22] the idea to develop the solid
nanostructured composite energetic materials is actively discussed.
These materials structurally are comprised of the solid fuel shell
which provides the heat due to the chemical reaction and in-
ert core with high thermal conductivity, which serves as a ther-
mal conduit to recuperate heat from hot products of the reac-
tion to the fresh fuel mixture. The core can be made of carbon

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.combustame.2017.04.019
0010-2180/ 2017 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
168 V.N. Kurdyumov et al. / Combustion and Flame 182 (2017) 167178

Isolated surface law of the form

Energetic material Flame
P  = 1 BY exp(E/RT1 ),
Unburnt Burnt T1(x,t)
where B, Y, E and R represent, respectively, the pre-exponential
S2 T2(x,t) factor, the mass fraction of combustible substance, the activation
x energy and the universal gas constant.
In order to describe the ame propagation a reference frame at-
S1 tached to the ame is used. Following the temperature distribution
High conductivity core along the energetic material, T1 (x, t), starting from the unburned
side, we choose a point x = x (the rst point if there are more
Fig. 1. Sketch of the problem.
than one) where the temperature is equal to some value T1 = T
(the reference temperature below). In the following, the reference
frame is attached to this point. In the case of steady ame prop-
nanotubes [22], metal/metal-oxide nanowires [23] or carbon bers
agation it moves as an invariable structure with a constant veloc-
[24], while standard energetic materials such as nitrocellulose are
ity equal to Uf independent on T . In the general case the veloc-
used in shell of the composite.
ity Uf of this point as a function of time characterizes the time-
In [25,26] we have employed a one-dimensional model in order
dependent development of the combustion process. The value of
to investigate the properties of combustion waves in such systems.
Uf is determined by the condition
The ame speed enhancement is estimated by using asymptotic
and numerical analysis and it is demonstrated that the optimal de- T1 (x , t ) = T (1)
sign of composite material can result in signicant stabilization of
combustion waves. The aim of this work is to extend our previ- Evidently, T must be chosen judiciously, less than the maximum
ous analysis to investigate the complex dynamical regimes, which temperature seen during the process, and greater than the mini-
emerge as the traveling combustion wave becomes unstable with mum temperature T0 . For the unsteady ame dynamics, the ame
respect to ame oscillations. To this end, in Section 2 we give the does not move as an intact structure and the specic form of Uf
general formulation and asymptotic assumptions used in the study; depends on the choice of the reference temperature T . Anticipat-
the numerical treatment is briey described in Section 3; the nu- ing the numerical results presented below the level of random-
merical results describing the steady-state traveling wave solutions ness (the Lyapunov characteristic exponent) becomes affected by
are presented in Section 4; the linear stability analysis formulation the choice of T in the cases of stochastically propagating ames.
is given in Section 5; the linear stability results are presented in Under above simplications, the dimensional balance equations
Section 6; the results of direct numerical calculations are given in describing conservations of mass of fuel and energy in both medi-
Section 7, with the results of calculations of the Lyapunov charac- ums take the form
teristic exponent in Section 8. Finally, conclusions are drawn in the  Y Y 
last section. S1 1 + 1 U f  = 0, (2)
t x
2. General formulation  T T 2T 
S1 1 c1 1 + 1 c1U f 1 1 21 Q  = PK (T1 T2 ), (3)
Consider an annulus of energetic material capable of exother-
t x x
mic decomposition surrounding a thin cylinder of high thermal
 T T 2T 
conductivity (e.g. a carbon nanotube), both mediums are at ini-
S2 2 c2 2 + 2 c2U f 2 2 22 = PK (T1 T2 ), (4)
tial temperature T0 . A sketch of the geometry is shown in Fig. 1. t x x
In what follows we assume that the heat capacities, c1 and c2 , the
heat conductivities, 1 and 2 , and the densities, 1 and 2 , are all where S1 , S2 are the areas of the solid combustible and pure con-
constant, where indexes 1 and 2 correspond to the energetic an- ductive sections, respectively, and P is the perimeter of the inter-
nulus and the core, respectively. We suppose that the heat losses mediate surface.
from the outer surface of the sample are negligible while the heat The mass fraction is normalized below with respect to its up-
exchange between the annulus and the core obeys a linear law, stream value, Y0 , and non-dimensional temperatures 1 = (T1
q = K (T1 T2 ), where q is the heat ux through the surface sepa- T0 )/(Ta T0 ) and 2 = (T2 T0 )/(Ta T0 ) are based on the adia-
rating the core and the annulus, per unit area, and K is an effec- batic ame temperature Ta = T0 + QY0 /c1 corresponding to a planar
tive heat-exchange coecient. Following [25,26] we assume that ame propagation in the pure energetic material. Let us dene the
the temperature of the shell and core can be effectively averaged characteristic time and length using the relations
across the corresponding regions, namely both temperatures are 
functions of x and t only. The heat-exchange coecient K appear-
tc = B 1 exp(E/RTa ), lc = tc 1 , (5)
ing in the present study has a phenomenological nature similar to where = E/RTa is the Zeldovich number and = (Ta T0 )/Ta is
that of the linear heat loss coecient used in micro-scale combus- the heat release parameter. The non-dimensional governing equa-
tion models [27,28]. It can be evaluated, for example, supposing tions take the form
that the core and the annulus are separated by a thin membrane.
Then, K = w /hw , where w and hw are the membrane conductiv- Y Y
+ uf = . (6)
ity and its thickness, respectively. The role of the ame structure t x
in the transverse direction is the subject of the ongoing work and
will be reported elsewhere. 1 1 2 1
+ uf = + ( 1 2 ) , (7)
The combustion process is modeled by an irreversible reac- t x x2
tion of the form F P + Q, where F denotes the combustible sub-
stance, P is the product, and Q is the heat released per unit mass of
fuel. The combustion rate, , dened as the mass of fuel consumed
2 2 2 2
+ uf = + s ( 1 2 ) , (8)
per unit volume and unit time, is assumed to follow an Arrhenius t x x2
 V.N. Kurdyumov et al. / Combustion and Flame 182 (2017) 167178 169

The parameters appearing in the above equations are Appropriate boundary conditions corresponding the congura-
tion depicted in Fig. 1 are
KP exp(E/RTa ) 2 1 c 1 S 1
= , = , s= , (9) x : 1 = 2 = Y 1 = 0 ,
1 c 1 S 1 B 1 2 c 2 S 2 (14)
x + : Y/ x = 1 / x = 2 / x = 0.
where 1 = 1 /1 c1 and 2 = 2 /2 c2 are the thermal diffusivi-
Finally, the problem of the ame propagation in the composite en-
ties. It is noteworthy that the parameter s can be easily changed
ergetic sample is reduced to solve Eqs. (6)(7) and (11) subject to
in experiments by varying the cross-section of the conductive core
the boundary conditions given by Eq. (14).
or deposited mass of the energetic material in the annulus. In
the limit 0 Eqs. (6)(7) become identical to those describing
3. Numerical treatment
a standard one-dimensional combustion wave propagating in the
pure energetic sample [9].
Steady as well as time-dependent computations were carries
In the following we assume that that the cross-section of the
out in a nite domains, xmin < x < xmax . The typical values were
conductive core is small compared with that of the solid com-
xmin = 20 and xmax = 20. The spatial derivatives were discretized
bustible, S2  S1 , and, simultaneously, it has a very high thermal
on a uniform grid using second order three-point central differ-
conductivity compared with that of the energetic annulus, namely
ences for the temperature in Eq. (7) and three-point upwind dif-
2  1 . In term of the non-dimensional parameters it means that
ferences for the convection term of Eq. (6). The typical number
s  1 and  1. It is convenient to introduce a parameter de-
of grid points was 2001. For time-dependent computations an ex-
ned as
plicit marching procedure was used in time with the typical time
2 S2 step = 104 . The number of grid points was doubled in some
= = . (10)
cases and was halved without any signicant differences in the
s 1 S1
results. In order to determine steady solutions (but not necessary
Always supposing that = O(1 ), Eq. (8) takes in the limit s stable), the steady counterpart ( / t 0) of Eqs. (6)(7) were
the following quasi-steady form solved together with Eq. (11) using a GaussSeidel method with
2 2 over-relaxation.
0= + ( 1 2 ) . (11)
x2 4. Steady-state solutions
This approximation describes conductive cores of negligible heat
capacity with non-negligible heat transfer effect. This situation cor- Consider rst the steadily propagating ames imposing / t =
responds to an experimental setup where the single carbon nan- 0 in Eqs. (6), (7) which were solved together with Eqs. (11) and
otube form the heat conducting core of the composite material (14). The system has the rst integral,
[22].
d 1 d 2
The dimensionless reaction rate appearing in Eqs. (6)(7) is u f ( 1 + Y 1 ) = + , (15)
dx dx
given by
indicating, together with Eq. (11), that 1 1 and 2 1 behind
 ( 1 ) 
the ame where the fuel mass fraction and temperature gradients
= Y exp 1
(12)
1 + ( 1 1 ) approach to zero value.
Figure 2 illustrates the typical distributions of the mass fraction
The factor appearing in Eq. (12) provides that uf 1 for the
and temperatures plotted for = 5, = 5, = 8 and = 0.7. The
steady combustion wave in the pure energetic material in the limit
distinctive characteristic of the temperature prole in the energetic
. material is the existence of a local maximum appearing just after
The instantaneous values of u f (t ) = tcU f /lc are determined by
the reaction zone with the super-adiabatic temperature, 1 max > 1.
the additional condition
The dimensionless steady velocity uf is shown in Fig. 3 (left
1 ( x , t ) = , (13) plot) together with the temperature maximum, 1 max (right plot),
as functions of for various , all curves calculated for = 8 and
where = (T T0 )/(Ta T0 ) is the non-dimensional reference = 0.7. It can be seen in Fig. 3 that the temperature in the an-
temperature. Evidently, all results should be independent on x nulus can be more than 30% higher than the adiabatic ame tem-
due to translation invariance along the direction of motion, x perature in pure solid fuel, while the ame speed can increase in
x + const. more than ve times. The gure shows also that for small values

1.5 =5, =5, =8, =0.7 10

1
8

1
6
Y 2 4
0.5

0
-20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 x 10
0

Fig. 2. Typical steady mass fraction and temperatures proles computed using the reduced model given by Eqs. (7), (6) and (11).
170 V.N. Kurdyumov et al. / Combustion and Flame 182 (2017) 167178

6 =8, =0.7 1.4

=8, =0.7
uf =10 1 max
5
1.3

=5
4
=5 =10
1.2 =1
=1
3
=0.1
1.1
2
=0.1

1
1
0 5 10 15 0 5 10 15

Fig. 3. Computed steady ame velocity uf (left) and maximum of the temperature 1 (right) as a function of ; for = 8, = 0.7 and several values of .

of the maximum temperature 1 max approaches to unity and are both functions of x. The constraint following from Eq. (13) be-
the ame velocity becomes uf 1.02 calculated for = 8, = 0.7 comes
and = 0. It can be explained by the fact that the effect of the
conductive core becomes negligible not only for 0, as it was 1 (x ) = 0 (20)
mentioned above, but also for 0 when 1 2 . The solution of Eqs. (1719) is sought in the form

( , 1 , 2 ) = (h , 1h , 2h ) + c (dY0 /dx, d01 /dx, d02 /dx ),

5. Linear stability analysis formulation (21)

Stability analysis of the steady-state ames presented in the
previous section has been carried out using the method described
in detail in [29]. The distributions of the steady-state temperatures,
mass fraction and the ame propagation velocity, all now denoted
by subindex 0, are perturbed as usual with small perturbations
i = i0 (x ) +
i (x ) exp(t ), i = 1, 2,
Y = Y0 (x ) +
(x ) exp(t ), (16)
u f = u f 0 +
u f 1 exp(t ),
where is a complex number, the real part of which represents of
the growth rate, and
is a small amplitude. The linearized eigen-
value problem obtained when substituting Eqs. (16) into Eqs. (6),
(7) and (11) reduces to nd non-trivial solutions of the system
 + u f 1Y0I + u f 0  I = A1 B ,
1 + u f 1 0I + u f 0 I1 = II1 + A1 + B (1 2 ),
where ( h , 1h , 2h ) is the solution of homogeneous system ob-
tained from Eqs. (1719) by imposing u f 1 = 0 and c is a constant.
The values of uf1 and c can be found by substituting (21) into
Eqs. (17)(19) and (20). It leads to
c = {1h /0I }|x=x , u f 1 = c.
Finally, the eigenvalue can be calculated by solving the homoge-
neous counterpart (imposing u f 1 = 0) of Eqs. (17)(19) with con-
straint (20) omitted without loss of generality. In what follows
subindex h denoting the homogeneous solution will not be ap-
plied.
It should be noted that the steady-state solutions in the
form of traveling waves are always invariant with respect to a
shift x x + const. It leads to existence of the eigenvalue =
0 with the corresponding eigenfunction given by ( , 1 , 2 ) =
(17) (dY0 /dx, d10 /dx, d20 /dx ). The method applied in this study is
able to calculate the eigenvalue with the largest real part, see [29].
Then, the eigenvalue = 0 can be obtained as a result (within nu-
(18) merical accuracy) in the case of a stable combustion wave.

6. Linear stability results

0 =  + (1 2 ).
II
2 (19)
In order to compare the stability properties of the combustion
wave in the composite sample with those in the pure energetic one
Here I denotes the differentiation with respect to x and
we plot in Fig. 4 the growth rate R calculated for = 0 (the con-
2Y0  ( 1 )  ductive core is absent) as a function of for different values of the
10
A= exp , heat release parameter . In fact, these results presented here for
[1 + (10 1 )]2 1 + (10 1 )
the sake of completeness are equivalent to those for the stability of
 ( 1 )  a planar ame front in an unbounded environment for k = 0, see
B= exp 10
[20], where k is the transverse wavenumber of perturbations. The
1 + (10 1 ) critical values of the Zeldovich number c above which the ame
 V.N. Kurdyumov et al. / Combustion and Flame 182 (2017) 167178 171

0.5 =8, =0.7

R 1
=10 =0.1
R
0.4
R
0.4
=0.9 0.3

=0.8 0.8
0.2

0.3 0.1

0.6 0
=0.7 =5
0 0.5 1 1.5

0.2
=1
0.4

0.1
=0.1
=0.6 0.2

0
6.5 7 7.5
8

Fig. 4. The growth rate R plotted as a function of for various corresponding

to the pure energetic material case; the traveling wave solution becomes unstable
for > c shown with a open circles.
0
0 5 10 15
Fig. 6. The growth rate R as a function of for = 8, = 0.7 and several values
of . The eigenvalue R = 0.3288 corresponding to = 0 (conductive core is neg-
ligible) is shown with a dark circle; open diamond symbols show the growth rate
computed from the time-dependent numerical simulations for = 5 and various .

becomes unstable are indicated in Fig. 4 with open circles. In par-

ticular, the critical Zeldovich number for = 0.7 is c 7.25.
Consider the case when the ame propagation in the pure ener-
getic sample is stable taking = 7.2 < c for = 0.7. The depen-
dencies of the growth rate R and the frequency of oscillations on
the parameter are plotted in Fig. 5 for various . The left gure
shows that with increasing values of an interval of appears
where R comes to be positive. It is remarkable that the combus-
tion wave recovers its stability for suciently small and suciently
large values of . On the other hand, the parameters and have
little effect on the frequency of oscillations I .
Figure 6 illustrates the case with = 8 > c when the combus-
tion wave is already unstable in the pure energetic sample showing
the dependence of the growth rate R on the parameter for sev-
eral values of . All curves originate at = 0 from the same point
indicated with a dark circle corresponding to the growth rate of
the (unstable) one-dimensional combustion wave in the pure ener-
getic sample. One can see in Fig. 6 that R initially increases with
increasing values of , peaks and thereafter decreases turning to

=7.2, =0.7 =7.2, =0.7

0.04 2

R I
=4
=3
0.03 =5 1.5
=5

0.02 1
=4

0.01 0.5
=3

0

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5

Fig. 5. The growth rate R (left) the frequency of oscillation I (right) as a function of calculated for = 7.2, = 0.7 and various . The critical values of are indicated
with open circles; open triangles in the left gure indicate the numerical cases shown in Fig. 7 for = 5; open diamond symbols in both gures show the growth rate and
the frequency of oscillations computed from the time-dependent numerical simulations for = 5 and various .
172 V.N. Kurdyumov et al. / Combustion and Flame 182 (2017) 167178

1.4 =0.1
uf
1.2

t
0.8
0 100 200 300 400

2 =1
uf

1.5

t
1
0 50 100 150 200

3
=2.5
uf

t
1
0 50 100 150 200

Fig. 7. Time histories of the ame velocity calculated for = 7.2, = 0.7, = 5 and several values of corresponding open triangles in Fig. 5; the reference temperature
is xed at = 0.5 for all cases.

be negative. The critical values of above which the ame propa-
gation becomes stable (R < 0) are marked with open circles.
7. Unsteady ame dynamics
In the present section the results of the linear stability analy-
sis are contrasted with the nonlinear ame dynamics. The time-
dependent problem given by Eqs. (67) and (11) was solved nu-
merically. Consider rst the case = 7.2 for which the combus-
tion wave is stable (the ame velocity is a constant in time) in
the pure energetic sample. Figure 7 shows the time-histories of
uf calculated for = 5 and three values of marked with trian-
gles in Fig. 5. This plot demonstrates that for = 0.1 and = 2.5
the ame approaches after a transient stage of behavior a stable
steady state. For = 1, on the other hand, the solution evolves
to a time-periodic state, with the ame velocity uf oscillating with
constant frequency and amplitude. Thus, for relatively low the
ame propagation remains stable as well as in the pure energetic
sample. It becomes unstable undergoing periodic oscillations when
is increased above the rst critical value , but a further in-
crease in above the second critical value leads eventually to
re-stabilization of the ame propagation.
The time-dependent numerical simulations themselves can be
used to evaluate the ame stability properties, see [30]. We show
in Figs. 5 and 6 with open diamond symbols the growth rate R
and the frequency of oscillations I based on Eqs. (6)(7) and
(11) computed for = 5 and various . One can see a good t of
these results to the linear stability analysis.
The ame dynamics becomes much more complex for higher
values of the Zeldovich number. Consider the case = 8 and =
 V.N. Kurdyumov et al. / Combustion and Flame 182 (2017) 167178 173

6
6
=1
5 =0.1 5

4
4

3
3

2
2

1
1

0
0 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200

6 =2.2 6 =2.5
5 5

4 4

3 3

2 2

1 1

0 0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200

6
=3 6
=3.5
uf uf
4 4

2 2

0
0 50 100 150 t 200 0
0 50 100 150 t 200

6
=4.0 6
=5.0
uf uf
4 4

2 2

0
0 50 100 150 t 200
0
0 10 20 30 40 t 50

Fig. 8. Time histories of the ame velocity calculated for = 8, = 0.7, = 5 and several values of ; the reference temperature is xed at = 0.5 for all cases.

0.7 when the combustion wave is already unstable in the pure en- Despite the local in time chaotic behavior of uf revealed in
ergetic sample. In Fig. 8 we show the time-history of uf for vari- some cases, the time-average ame velocity is always a constant.
ous values of . All cases were calculated for = 5 and the refer- Let us introduce the value
ence temperature was xed at = 0.5. One can see that with in-

creasing values of the ame dynamics suffers important changes 1 t
u f = u f (t )d t . (22)
evolving from merely oscillatory, as shown by the = 0.1 case, t 0
through the period-doubling route, the cases = 1 and 2.2, to the
chaotic behavior illustrated with = 2.5 and = 3. It is notable In fact, Eq. (22) represents the mean travel distance per unit time.
that further increase in produces the inverse period doubling The limiting value of u f calculated at t gives the time-average
cascade illustrated with the = 4 case, and, nally, leads to stabi- ame velocity. Shown in Fig. 10 is the time history of u f calcu-
lization of the ame propagation shown for = 5. lated for = 8, = 5 and = 3. The solid line and points in this
The chaotic ame dynamics found for = 3 is compared with gure show the cases calculated for = 0.5 and = 0.8, respec-
the simple oscillatory behavior observed for = 0.1 in Fig. 9 tively. One can see that the limiting value of u f is independent on
where the dependence of the temperature maximum 1 max is plot- the choice of used to attach the reference frame to the ame,
ted versus the ame velocity uf . as it should be. It means that the ame as a whole propagates as
174 V.N. Kurdyumov et al. / Combustion and Flame 182 (2017) 167178

1.5 1.5 =3
1 max =0.1 1 max

1.4 1.4

1.3 1.3

1.2 1.2

1.1 1.1

1 1
0 1 2 3 4 uf 5 0 1 2 3 4 uf 5

Fig. 9. The dependence of 1max versus uf for the mere oscillatory dynamics (left plot) and the chaotic regime (right plot).

_3 =8, =5, =3
uf the steady flame velocity

2.5

2
the time-avarage flame velocity

1.5

1
0 200 400 600 800
t 1000

Fig. 10. Time history of u f dened by Eq. (22) calculated for = 8, = 5 and = 3; the cases computed with = 0.5 and 0.8 are shown with a solid line and points,
respectively. The steady ame velocity is indicated with a dashed line.

a compact structure with a constant time-average ame velocity
while its parts suffer the local chaotic motion in time around mean
values. It is interesting also that this time-average velocity results
smaller than the velocity of the corresponding (unstable) traveling
wave solution reported in Section 4 and shown in Fig. 10 with a
dashed line.
The simplest tool to illustrate variations in the ame dynamics
is the rst return map technics. Using the dependence of uf as a
function of time the series of the local maximum of the ame ve-
locity are identied, {u f n , n = 1, 2, . . . }, where n is the maximum
number. The dependence of u f (n+1 ) versus uf n is plotted in Fig. 11
for various . These pictures display the evolution of the ame dy-
namics with increasing values of .
The case = 0.1 illustrates a simple oscillatory behavior with
the only maximum of uf during the period: the rst return map
consists of a single point. The rst return maps for = 1 and
= 2.2 contain two and four points, respectively, indicating the
typical period doubling cascade. The further increase in pro-
duces the rst return map to be continuous evidencing the chaotic
behavior of uf on time. It is interesting to see in Fig. 11 that for
= 2.5 the rst return map consists of various separated contin-
uous parts which merge later for higher values of , as shown for
= 3. Thereafter, with further increase of , the rst return map
is split again into various parts, as shown for = 3.42. Finally, the
inverse doubling cascade are observed, as shown for = 3.5, 3.7
and 4.
8. Lyapunov characteristic exponent
Evidently, the ame dynamics considered as a whole should
be independent on the reference frame used to describe the pro-
cess. In the present study we use the reference frame attached to
a point with a xed temperature, = . For the steady propaga-
tion the ame moves as a rigid structure and the (constant) ame
velocity uf is independent on due to invariance with respect to
a shift along the direction of motion, x x + const. In the case of
unsteady ame dynamics the ame does not move as a rigid struc-
ture, because each point of the ame moves with own velocity.
Consequently, the specic form of uf does depend on the choice of
the reference temperature . In a certain sense the specic value
of plays the role of an observable parameter determined by the
choice an experimentalist.
Figure 12 shows the rst return maps calculated for the same
set of the physical parameters and different values of the reference
temperature in the case of the chaotic ame dynamics. The g-
ure shows that the maps are qualitatively similar, as one would
expect, but the amplitude of chaotic oscillations is affected signi-
cantly by the choice of .
 V.N. Kurdyumov et al. / Combustion and Flame 182 (2017) 167178 175

6 6
=0.1 =1
uf(n+1) uf(n+1)

5 5

4 4

3 3

2 2
2 3 4 5 ufn 6 2 3 4 5 ufn 6

6 6
=2.2 =2.5
uf(n+1) uf(n+1)

5 5

4 4

3 3

2 2
2 3 4 5 ufn 6 2 3 4 5
ufn 6

Fig. 11. The rst return maps of the relative maximum of uf plotted for = 8, = 0.7, = 5 and various .

The level of randomness of time series can be characterized by shell-inert core type is derived and investigated for practically im-
the Lyapunov characteristic exponent [31]. In order that such cal- portant case of large thermal conductivity and small cross sectional
culations to be made the rst return maps from Fig. 12 were ap- area of the inert core. This situation is encountered, for exam-
proximated using tenth order interpolating polynomial. The Lya- ple, in the case of carbon nanotubes used as a thermal conduct-
punov exponent dened in the ordinary way, ing element of the composite. Despite the model applied contains
  a phenomenological parameter, namely the coecient describing
1 
N

L = lim ln  f (u f i ), (23) the linear heat exchange between the core and the shell, the nu-
N N merical facilities provided are signicant. The study of the reactive
i=1
shell-inert core conguration with one-dimensionality relaxed is in
where f(z) is the interpolating polynomial, was calculated for nite
progress.
N. It was veried that for N above 104 the inuence of the total
It is demonstrated that characteristics of ame propagation
number of iterations on L becomes negligible. Figure 13 shows
such as speed and the type of dynamical regime can be effec-
the variations of L with . One can see that the choice of the
tively controlled and manipulated, for xed chemical properties,
reference temperature affects perceptibly the level of randomness
by varying the experimental parameters of the material i.e. the
of the stochastic dynamics.
thickness of the fuel annulus deposited and the diameter of the
9. Conclusions heat conducting core. The different types of dynamical regimes in-
clude traveling, pulsating and chaotic waves. It is shown that the
The model describing the propagation of combustion waves in variation of the control parameter allow to modify the velocity of
composite energetic material having a structure of the reactive combustion wave propagation from the value corresponding to the
176 V.N. Kurdyumov et al. / Combustion and Flame 182 (2017) 167178

6
6
=3.0 =3.42
uf(n+1) uf(n+1)

5 5

4 4

3 3

2 2
2 3 4 5
ufn 6 2 3 4 5
ufn 6

6 =3.5 6 =3.7
uf (n+1) uf (n+1)

5 5

4 4

3 3

2 2
2 3 4 5
uf n 6 2 3 4 5
uf n 6

6 =4
uf(n+1)

2
2 3 4 5
ufn 6

Fig. 11. Continued

adiabatic combustion wave in pure solid fuel to the values which
are more then 5 times faster. Besides that the maximum temper-
ature in the energetic annulus can be adjusted from the adiabatic
ame temperature of pure solid fuel to the value exceeding it over
30 % and more. This can be very important and benecial for com-
bustion wave synthesis of solid materials and realization of the
concept of chemical furnace.
Complex dynamics of ame propagation are investigated. It is
demonstrated that the chaotic regime of combustion can be real-
ized. The level of stochasticity of the process measured by the Lya-
 V.N. Kurdyumov et al. / Combustion and Flame 182 (2017) 167178 177

7 =3.0 to predict and which may cause thermal runaways and local over-
heating. This motivates the study of complex dynamical regimes in
uf(n+1) such materials. In the nearest future we plan to undertake an ex-
perimental investigation of combustion dynamics of the shell-core
6 energetic system made of thin metal wires and solid fuel. In such
*=0.8 conguration the ame oscillations may be detected and analyzed
with high-speed imaging and oscillations of luminosity.
*=0.5
5 Acknowledgments

VNK acknowledge the support of Spanish MEC under Project

#ENE2015-65852-C2-2-R; VVG and RVF acknowledge the nan-
4 cial support from RFBF grant number 16-03-00758 and The
*=0.2 Ministry of Education and Science of Russian Federation (grant
14.Y26.31.0 0 03).

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