This monograph deals with the structure, generation and stability of flames from a mathematical point of view. It uses a specific mathematical approach to provide a unified theoretical description of fundamental flame phenomena. Its importance stems from the fact that it provides the first clear evidence that combustion can be legitimately treated as a mathematical science as well as an empirical one. The book will be of interest to researchers in combustion, fluid mechanics and applied mathematics, as well as to graduate students taking advanced courses in these areas.

Combustion Theory delves deeper into the science of combustion than most other texts and gives insight into combustions from a molecular and a continuum point of view. The book presents derivations of the basic equations of combustion theory and contains appendices on the background of subjects of thermodynamics, chemical kinetics, fluid dynamics, and transport processes. Diffusion flames, reactions in flows with negligible transport and the theory of pre-mixed flames are treated, as are detonation phenomena, the combustion of solid propellents, and ignition, extinction, and flamibility pehnomena.

The combustion of fossil fuels remains a key technology for the foreseeable future. It is therefore important that we understand the mechanisms of combustion and, in particular, the role of turbulence within this process. Combustion always takes place within a turbulent flow field for two reasons: turbulence increases the mixing process and enhances combustion, but at the same time combustion releases heat which generates flow instability through buoyancy, thus enhancing the transition to turbulence. The four chapters of this book present a thorough introduction to the field of turbulent combustion. After an overview of modeling approaches, the three remaining chapters consider the three distinct cases of premixed, non-premixed, and partially premixed combustion, respectively. This book will be of value to researchers and students of engineering and applied mathematics by demonstrating the current theories of turbulent combustion within a unified presentation of the field.