Influence of aerodynamics on the critical parameters of thermal ignition

A numerical analysis of the critical conditions of thermal ignition for a two‐dimensional cylindrical reactor with flow field occurrence was carried out. The critical conditions of thermal ignition were defined as bifurcation points of the limit type. The dependence of the bifurcation points on aerodynamics was analysed by a sequential variation of the Peclet number. The flow field in the reactor was generated previously by a numerical solution of the Navier‐Stokes equations. The nonlinear parabolic equation of heat balance and linear eigenvalue boundary problems occurring in the proposed non‐stationary method for calculating the bifurcation points was solved numerically using the finite difference technique. It was shown that the critical points of thermal ignition form a surface bounded by the line of ‘limit of criticality’ in the parameter space. For large values of the Peclet number, the dependence of the critical parameter of ignition on Peclet number becomes linear.