Fractal properties of propagating fronts in a strongly stirred fluid

Abstract
The fractal properties of propagating aqueous autocatalytic chemical reaction fronts are measured in a capillary-wave (CW) flow at values of the ratio of the RMS intensity of the fluid velocity fluctuation (u′) to the laminar propagation rate of the front (SL) up to 220. The images of the fronts are found to exhibit fractal behavior with a fractal dimension (d) of 1.31±0.06, which is very similar to some measurements in gaseous flame fronts, as well as isoscalar contours of passive dyes in CW and other randomly stirred flows. These results suggest that u′/SL, thermal expansion, variations of viscosity and diffusivity across the flame front, and the turbulence spectrum do not significantly affect d in randomly stirred flows.

This publication has 18 references indexed in Scilit: