This book summarizes the main advances in the mechanisms of combustion processes. It focuses on the analysis of kinetic mechanisms of gas combustion processes and experimental investigation into the interrelation of kinetics and gas dynamics in gas combustion. The book is complimentary to the one previously published, The Modes of Gaseous Combustion.

The potential of hydrogen as an important future energy source has generated fresh interest in the study of hydrogenous gas mixtures. Indeed, both its high caloricity and reactivity are unique properties, the latter underscoring safety considerations when handling such mixtures. The present monograph is devoted to the various aspects of hydrogen combustion and explosion processes. In addition to theoretical and phenomenological considerations, this work also collates the results of many experiments from less well known sources. The text reviews the literature in this respect, thereby providing valuable information about the thermo-gas-dynamical parameters of combustion processes for selected experimental settings in a range of scientific and industrial applications.

This reference includes an applications focus on jet and rocket propulsion systems that will be useful for students and engineers.

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.