Kinetic Theory of Reactive Gas Mixtures with Application to Combustion

We consider a generalized Boltzmann equation valid for dilute, isotropic, polyatomic gas mixtures with chemical reactions. Depending on the ratio of characteristic times between reactive and inert collisions, various chemical regimes are obtained in the first order Enskog expansion and their compatibility with the Boltzmann H-theorem is investigated. We then review the mathematical structure of the transport linear systems resulting from a Galerkin approximation of the integral equations satisfied the species perturbed distribution functions. The multicomponent transport coefficients are written as convergent series and accurate approximate expressions are obtained by truncation. Numerical results are presented for combustion applications including laminar flame propagation, counterflow flame extinction and multidimensional Bunsen flames.