Thermal explosion in closed systems: Criteria and critical conditions

Abstract

A new criterion for thermal explosion in exothermically reacting systems for the case of arbitrary one-step conversions is proposed. The computation method is based on the analysis of the equation of maximum temperatures obtained for closed systems taking into account reactant consumption. The dependence of the maximum temperature on the Semenov and Todes parameters is bistable and the critical conditions are determined by the extremum conditions on the relevant parametric diagrams. The demarcation lines of ignition in the Todes criterion–Semenov criterion parametric plane are calculated for second-order exothermic reactions. Comparison of numerical and analytical calculations shows that they are in satisfactory agreement.