Explores the rapidly changing area of combustion, in which asymptotic methods and bifurcation theory have made a significant impact.

An introduction to far-reaching developments in theoretical combustion, with special emphasis on flame stability, a topic that has, to date, benefited most from the application of modern asymptotic methods. The authors provide a modern view of flame theory, and a complete description of the longstanding ignition and explosion problems, including the solutions that were made available independently by Kapila and Kassoy through activation-energy asymptotics, the main theme of this monograph.

This monograph evolved over the past five years. It had its origin as a set of lecture notes prepared for the Ninth Summer School of Mathematical Physics held at Ravello, Italy, in 1984 and was further refined in seminars and lectures given primarily at the University of Colorado. The material presented is the product of a single mathematical question raised by Dave Kassoy over ten years ago. This question and its partial resolution led to a successful, exciting, almost unique interdisciplinary col laborative scientific effort. The mathematical models described are often times deceptively simple in appearance. But they exhibit a mathematical richness and beauty that belies that simplicity and affirms their physical significance. The mathe matical tools required to resolve the various problems raised are diverse, and no systematic attempt is made to give the necessary mathematical background. The unifying theme of the monograph is the set of models themselves. This monograph would never have come to fruition without the enthu siasm and drive of Dave Eberly-a former student, now collaborator and coauthor-and without several significant breakthroughs in our understand ing of the phenomena of blowup or thermal runaway which certain models discussed possess. A collaborator and former student who has made significant contribu tions throughout is Alberto Bressan. There are many other collaborators William Troy, Watson Fulks, Andrew Lacey, Klaus Schmitt-and former students-Paul Talaga and Richard Ely-who must be acknowledged and thanked.

This volume contains invited lectures and contributed papers presented at the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Mathematical Modeling in Combustion and related topics, held in. Lyon (France), April 27 - 30, 1987. This conference was planned to fit in with the two-month visit of Professor G.S.S. Ludford to the Ecole Centrale de Lyon. He kindly agreed to chair the Scientific and Organizing Committee and actively helped to initiate the meeting. His death in December 1986 is an enormous loss to the scientific community in general, and in particular, to the people involved in the present enterprise. The subject of mathematical modeling in combustion is too large for a single conference, and the selection of topics re flects both areas of recent research activity and areas of in terest to Professor G.S.S. Ludford, to whose memory the Advanced Workshop and this present volume are dedicated. The meeting was divided into seven specialized sessions detonation theory, mathematical analysis, numerical treatment of combustion problems, flame theory, experimental and industrial aspects, complex chemistry, and turbulent combustion. It brought together researchers and engineers from University and Industry (see below the closing remarks of the workshop by Prof. N. Peters). The articles in this volume have been judged and accepted on their scientific quality, and language corrections may have been sacrificed in order to allow quick dissemination of knowledge to prevail.

vi The amalgamation of individual approaches and results from various schools into a comprehensive scientific theory, which can be generally appreciated throughout the international scientific com munity, is oftendifficult and time consuming. We believe that one of the best ways to give a complete and clear presentation of a theoryis to include a review of the developmental history of that theory. We are convinced that explaining a theory in a historical perspectiveis essential for a proper understanding ofits present state and for a sound choice of future developments. So we have endeavored to present a complete picture of investi gations performed in both Western and Soviet nations. We understand that Soviet investigations are less familiar to English-speaking readers due to the languagebarrier and the obvious sad circumstances of the interruption of scientific connections before and after World War II, because of this there is an emphasis on Soviet publications in the bibliography. Our attempt to present a comprehensive picture has made our book rather large becauseit has had to include some fundamentals of thermochemistry and kinetics as well as self-ignition and flame propagation invarious conditions. We have also included stability problems in some detail but we have had to leave out the problems of combustion of solid propellants and detonation. We hope that our bookwill be useful to the reader wishing to learn about both the present state of combustion theory and howit originated due to the efforts of many people from different countries. Ya.B.Z.

Most of the material covered in this book deals with the fundamentals of chemistry and physics of key processes and fundamental mechanisms for various combustion and combustion related phenomena in gaseous combustible mixture. It provides the reader with basic knowledge of burning processes and mechanisms of reaction wave propagation. The combustion of a gas mixture (flame, explosion, detonation) is necessarily accompanied by motion of the gas. The process of combustion is therefore not only a chemical phenomenon but also one of gas dynamics. The material selection focuses on the gas phase and with premixed gas combustion. Premixed gas combustion is of practical importance in engines, modern gas turbine and explosions, where the fuel and air are essentially premixed, and combustion occurs by the propagation of a front separating unburned mixture from fully burned mixture. Since premixed combustion is the most fundamental and potential for practical applications, the emphasis in the present work is be placed on regimes of premixed combustion. This text is intended for graduate students of different specialties, including physics, chemistry, mechanical engineering, computer science, mathematics and astrophysics.