Existence of travelling waves and high activation energy limits for a onedimensional thermo-diffusive lean spray flame model

Abstract

We provide a mathematical analysis of a thermo-diffusive combustion model of lean spray flames, for which we prove the existence of travelling waves. In the high activation energy singular limit we show the existence of two distinct combustion regimes with a sharp transition -- the diffusion limited regime and the vaporisation controlled regime. The latter is specific to spray flames with slow enough vaporisation. We give a complete characterisation of these regimes, including explicit velocities, profiles, and upper estimate of the size of the internal combustion layer. Our model is on the one hand simple enough to allow for explicit asymptotic limits and on the other hand rich enough to capture some particular aspects of spray combustion. Finally, we briefly discuss the cases where the vaporisation is infinitely fast, or where the spray is polydisperse.