Low vorticity and small gas expansion in premixed flames

Abstract

Different approaches to the nonlinear dynamics of premixed flames exist in the literature: equations based on developments in a gas ex- pansion parameter, weak nonlinearity approximation, potential model equation in a coordinate-free form. However the relation between these different equations is often unclear. Starting here with the low vor- ticity approximation proposed recently by one of the authors, we are able to recover from this formulation the dynamical equations usually obtained at the lowest orders in gas expansion for plane on average flames, as well as obtain a new second order coordinate-free equation extending the potential flow model known as the Frankel equation. It is also common to modify gas expansion theories into phenomelogical equations, which agree quantitatively better with numerical simula- tions. We discuss here what are the restrictions imposed by the gas expansion development results on this process.