Moshe Matalon, College of Engineering Caterpillar Professor in the Department of Mechanical Science Engineering, was invited to address a crowd of students and researchers from various European universities at the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics (Nordita).
He delivered a series of lectures that highlight the state of the art on “Intrinsic Combustion Instabilities.” Instabilities in practical systems are often desirable, serving to enhance mixing of the fuel with oxidizer, but may also be detrimental by causing large fluctuations in temperature that could damage the combustor walls.
Matalon is well-known for his innovative and transformative contributions in numerous areas of combustion, laying the foundations of rational, self-consistent descriptions of premixed and diffusion, laminar and turbulent flames. He has worked extensively on identifying the physical mechanisms responsible for various modes of flame instabilities, determining critical conditions for their onset and the nonlinear development that evolves thereafter. Of particular interest is their relevance under turbulent conditions, ubiquitous to all practical systems and the focus of the Nordita workshop.
The week-long summer school concluded a month-long program on “Physics of Turbulent Combustion” held at Nordita. Founded in Copenhagen as the Center for Theoretical Atomic Physics in 1957, the center was initially located for 50 years on the premises of the Niels Bohr Institute before moving to Stockholm in 2007. It is currently hosted jointly with the Royal Institute of technology (KTH) and Stockholm University and runs extended workshops in various areas of theoretical physics.