Concentrations and mixture fractions

Equation (9.41) constitutes a fundamental solution for purely convective mass burning flux in a stagnant layer. Sorting through the S-Z transformation will allow us to obtain specific stagnant layer solutions for T and Yr However, the introduction of a new variable - the mixture fraction - will allow us to express these profiles in mixture fraction space where they are universal. They only require a spatial and temporal determination of the mixture fraction/. The mixture fraction is defined as the mass fraction of original fuel atoms. It is as if the fuel atoms are all painted red in their evolved state, and as they are transported and chemically recombined, we track their mass relative to the gas phase mixture mass. Since these fuel atoms cannot be destroyed, the governing equation for their mass conservation must be 

Before bringing this analysis to a close we must take care of some unfinished business. The chemical kinetic terms, i.e. flip, have been transformed away. How can they be dealt with  

Recall that we are assuming faem C faff (°r fax, if turbulent flow). Anyone who has carefully observed a laminar diffusion flame - preferably one with little soot, e.g. burning a small amount of alcohol, say, in a whiskey glass of Sambucca - can perceive of a thin flame (sheet) of blue incandescence from CH radicals or some yellow from heated soot in the reaction zone. As in the premixed flame (laminar deflagration), this flame is of the order of 1 mm in thickness. A quenched candle flame produced by the insertion of a metal screen would also reveal this thin yellow (soot) luminous cup-shaped sheet of flame. Although wind or turbulence would distort and convolute this flame sheet, locally its structure would be preserved provided that faem fax. As a consequence of the fast chemical kinetics time, we can idealize the flame sheet as an infinitessimal sheet. The reaction then occurs at y = yf in our one dimensional model. 

This condition defines the thin flame approximation, and implies that the flame settles on a location to accommodate the supply of both fuel and oxygen. This condition also provides a mathematical closure for the problem since all other solutions now follow. We will illustrate these. 

Since at the flame sheet Yq2 = Yf = 0, this is the definition of a stoichiometric system so that 

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