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Measurement of the temperature profile of an exothermic autocatalytic reaction front

J. Martin, N. Rakotomalala, L. Talon, and D. Salin
Phys. Rev. E 80, 055101(R) – Published 19 November 2009

Abstract

Autocatalytic reactions may propagate as solitary waves, namely, at a constant front velocity and with a stationary concentration profile, resulting from a balance between molecular diffusion and chemical reaction. When the reaction is exothermic, a thermal wave is linked to the chemical front. As the thermal diffusivity is nearly two orders of magnitude larger than the molecular one, the temperature profile spreads over length scales (mm) two orders of magnitude larger than the concentration one. Using an infrared camera, we measure the temperature profiles for a chlorite-tetrathionate autocatalytic reaction. The profiles are compared quantitatively to lattice Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook (BGK) numerical simulations. Our analysis also accounts for the lack of observation of the thermal wave for the iodate arsenous acid reaction.

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  • Received 24 July 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.80.055101

©2009 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

J. Martin1, N. Rakotomalala1, L. Talon1, and D. Salin1,2

  • 1Univ. Pierre et Marie Curie-Paris6, Univ. Paris-Sud and CNRS Lab FAST, Bat. 502, Campus Univ., Orsay F-91405, France
  • 2Institut Universitaire de France, Paris, France

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Issue

Vol. 80, Iss. 5 — November 2009

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