Various models for the mean chemical source term are evaluated by considering flames in turbulent reactant streams impinging on a wall. Included are models given by algebraic forms and by a transport equation for the flamelet surface density. Evaluation is made in terms of deduced experimental distributions of a turbulent Damkohler number in five flames studied by others. Only qualitative agreement between deduced and model distributions is found indicating that additional attention to this important term is required. (C) 2001 by The Combustion Institute.