Analysis of chemical kinetic systems over the entire parameter space. III. A wet combustion system

Abstract

A simple generalization of Semenov thermal explosion theory is studied here; one exothermic reaction taking place at the same time as a second one involving water as a reactant. Evaporation and condensation are also considered. The resulting two ordinary differential equations containing three parameters are treated by recently developed methods outlined in the first paper of this series. This model is a simple representation of the combustion of wet cellulosic materials such as bagasse, cotton and sawdust. The theory predicts an amazing variety of behaviour arising in association with the degenerate singularities that occur. These include degeneracies up to and including the quartic fold, H32 bifurcation and degenerate double zero eigenvalue points.