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In most practical combustion systems, the number of reactions and reactants is very large. It is a serious challenge to construct 2D steady solutions for relatively simple gases such as methane/air. If one is interested in engine chemistry, rocket propellant chemistry; or unsteady 2D or steady 3D problems for simple gases, the chemistry is limiting. Rational simplification of the chemistry, or 'reduced chemistry' is one approach to the problem. So called 'steady state approximations for active radicals', and other such approximations, are made. This can be effective, but there are computational difficulties that arise from the mathematical descriptions that arise. A new strategy is to calculate low dimensional manifolds in reactant space on which the system moves after initial brief transients. This concept arises in a natural way when one looks at the extraordinary variations in time scales of the various reactions. However, there appear to be serious difficulties for spatially dependent problems, which is what flame researchers are interested in. One problem appears to be that the manifold is different at different points.

The minisymposium will bring together combustion researchers who have been wrestling with these issues, and mathematicians (asymptoticists, dynamical systems experts, etc.) to assess the present situation, and if there are avenues to be explored, whether there are difficulties that can be expressed in mathematical terms, and so might have mathematical answers.

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