reference:
Zingale et al. 2001, 20th Texas Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics, Austin, Texas, 10-15 Dec. 2000, Melville, NY: AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 586. Edited by J. C. Wheeler and H. Martel.

We have begun direct numerical simulations of flame-vortex interactions in order to understand quenching of thermonuclear flames. The key question is -- can a thermonuclear flame be quenched? If not, then the Type Ia supernova models with deflagration-detonation transition mechanisms that demand a fined tuned preconditioned region are unlikely to work.

Jan 2001 AAS meeting poster

Preliminary results of a pure carbon flame passing through a vortex. The density of the medium is 5.e8 g/cc. The carbon flame moves at ~ 60 km/s. In these simulations, we pass a steady-state laminar flame through a vortex pair. The vortex pair represents the most severe strain the flame front will encounter inside the white dwarf. We vary the speed and size of the vortex pair in order to understand the quenching process.

These simulations use the FLASH Code (v 1.61), a multidimensional, parallel, adaptive hydrodynamics code designed to simulate astrophysical thermonuclear flashes. FLASH was extended to include thermal diffusion in order to do direct numerical simulations of flames.

These simulations were carried out with the FLASH Code v. 1.6