Travelling Combustion Waves in a Porous Medium. Part I—Existence

A one-space-dimensional, time-dependent model for travelling combustion waves in a porous medium is analysed. The key variables are the temperature of the solid medium and its density and the temperature of the gaseous phase and its density. The key parameters µ, λ and a are related (respectively) to the driving gas velocity, the specific heat of the combustible solid and the ratio of consumption of oxygen to that of solid. The regions of existence of the different types of combustion waves are found in µ, λ parameter space, with a = 0. The types of combustion wave are classified by the switch mechanism that turns off the combustion, which occurs over a finite, but unknown, interval. Because the model is linear outside the combustion zone, the eigenvalue problem governing the existence of travelling waves may be reformulated as a two-point free boundary problem on a finite domain. Existence and nonexistence theorems are established for this unusual bifurcation problem.