Thermal explosion in a vibrationally nonequilibrium gas

The problem on thermal explosion in a nonequilibrium gas sustained in a nonequilibrium state by pumping energy into vibrational degrees of freedom of the gas molecules and removing heat through the gas interface with the ambient medium, is solved under auxiliary constraints imposed either on the state of the vibrational manifold or on the pumping rate. The results of numerical solution of the equation of energy conservation are compared with the solution of a similar problem, obtained by the Frank-Kamenetskii algorithm. The values of the parameters, at which the system becomes thermally unstable, are determined. Predictions of the thermal explosion theory are correlated with calculations by the method of evolution of small hydrodynamic perturbations.