Abstract
The effect of fluctuations of either thermodynamic or environmental origin on ignition in explosive systems is analyzed, with special emphasis on thermal explosion. A simple model due to Semenov is first analyzed in the zero-dimensional approximation. It is shown that the ignition times exhibit a wide dispersion, which at the level of the probability distribution of temperature shows up as a transient bimodality. Next, an extension to a spatially distributed system is developed. It is shown that fluctuations induce unexpected symmetry-breaking phenomena, reflected by a considerable dispersion of the position of the first “hot spot” initiated in the system.
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Nicolis, G., Baras, F. Intrinsic randomness and spontaneous symmetry-breaking in explosive systems. J Stat Phys 48, 1071–1090 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01009534
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01009534