Thermal explosion in closed systems: Criteria and critical conditions

A new criterion for thermal explosion in exothermic reacting systems for the case of arbitrary one-step conversions. The method of calculation is based on the analysis of the equation of maximum temperatures obtained for closed systems with the consumption of reagents taken into account. The dependence of the maximum temperature on the Semenov and Todes parameters is bistable and the critical conditions are determined by the extremum conditions on the relevant parametric diagrams. The demarcation lines of ignition in the Todes criterion–Semenova criterion parametric plane are calculated for second-order exothermic reactions. Comparison of numerical and analytical calculations showed that they are in satisfactory agreement