ABSTRACT
Qualitative reasoning with a rather simple chemical kinetics scheme can give insight into the H2-O2 explosion and its dependence upon pressure and temperature conditions. Radicals are extremely important in the kinetic schemes relevant to atmospheric pollution. Most fuel and oxidizer combinations have much more complicated chemical kinetics schemes. A technique called global kinetics may often be used, whereby an approximate chemical rate expression may be used. A detailed listing of reactions involving hydrocarbons and their rates may be found elsewhere. For engineering purposes, however, it is often possible to bypass the details of chemical kinetics and still retain some information on scaling laws for many flame types. While an equilibrium calculation at usual temperatures shows that radicals are only present in small amounts, they play a central role in chemical kinetics reaction schemes. Hungry for electrons, radicals are efficient intermediates in reaction schemes for taking the reaction path forward.
