Physical and Chemical Mechanisms of Reactions that Proceed at Extremely High Rates in a Propagating Flame and the Detonation of Gas

The characteristic periods of the reactions in a propagating flame and the detonation of most gases are found to be less than 10 −4 and 10 −6 s, respectively. The extreme rates and accelerations of reactions responsible for such short times correspond to the law of the dependence of the rate of the combustion reaction on temperature, which is an exponent containing a Boltzmann factor in a positive power index. The kinetics of the processes is determined mainly by a sharp increase in the concentrations of free atoms and radicals as they approach those of the initial reagents. The conclusions of the theory agree with experimental results.