The Effect of Viscosity on Hydrodynamic Stability of a Plane Flame Front

Abstract

This paper presents a linear analysis of the hydrodynamic stablity of the plane flame front of a premixed laminar flame. The technique of outer and inner asymptotic expansions is used to calculate the next approximation to the classical long-wave Landau limit. The resulting correction turns out to be independent of the Prandtl number. This implies that, although diffusivity, conductivity and viscosity in gases are of the same order of magnitude, viscosity exerts a secondary influence in comparison with diffusivity and conductivity.