Effects of curvature and compressibility on the stability of thermal fronts

The stability of subsonic thermal fronts against corrugation is analyzed and an exact dispersion relation is obtained taking into account the effects of the curvature of the distorted front as well as the compressibility of the gas. At a certain value of the Mach number ahead of the thermal front, unstable rates show a maximum; these rates drop to zero when a Chapman-Jouguet regime is established behind heat fronts. It is shown that curvature effects tend to stabilize conductive heat fronts propagating in a compressible gas.