Arrhenius' Law in Turbulent Media and an Equivalent Tunnel Effect

The indeterminacy inherent to the formal extension of Arrhenius' law to reactions in turbulent flows is shown to be surmountable in the case of a binary exchange reaction with a sufficiently high activation energy. A preliminary calculation predicts that the turbulent reaction rate is invariant in the Arrhenius form except for an equivalently lowered activation energy. This is a reflection of turbulence-augmented molecular vigor, and causes an appreciable increase in the reaction rate. A similarity to the tunnel effect in quantum mechanics is indicated. The anomaly associated with the mild ignition of oxy-hydrogen mixtures is discussed in this light. Additional informationNotes on contributorsSHUNICHI TSUGÉ Present address: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California 94035.