Scaling and Noise in Slow Combustion of Paper

M. Myllys; J. Maunuksela; M. J. Alava; T. Ala-Nissila; J. Timonen

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.84.1946

Scaling and Noise in Slow Combustion of Paper

M. Myllys, J. Maunuksela, M. J. Alava, T. Ala-Nissila, and J. Timonen

Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 1946 – Published 28 February 2000

Abstract

We present results of high resolution experiments on kinetic roughening of slow combustion fronts in paper, focusing on short length and time scales. Using three different grades of paper, we find that the combustion fronts show apparent spatial and temporal multiscaling at short scales. The scaling exponents decrease as a function of the order of the corresponding correlation functions. The noise affecting the fronts reveals short range temporal and spatial correlations, and non-Gaussian noise amplitudes. Our results imply that the overall behavior of slow combustion fronts cannot be explained by standard theories of kinetic roughening.

Received 28 September 1999

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.84.1946

Authors & Affiliations

M. Myllys¹, J. Maunuksela¹, M. J. Alava², T. Ala-Nissila^2,3, and J. Timonen¹

¹Department of Physics, University of Jyväskylä, P.O. Box 35, FIN-40351 Jyväskylä, Finland
²Laboratory of Physics, Helsinki University of Technology, P.O. Box 1000, FIN-02015 HUT, Espoo, Finland
³Helsinki Institute of Physics, Helsinki University of Technology, P.O. Box 1000, FIN-02015 HUT, Espoo, Finland