Front propagation in cellular flows for fast reaction and small diffusivity

We investigate the influence of fluid flows on the propagation of chemical fronts arising in Fisher-Kolmogorov-Petrovsky-Piskunov (FKPP) type models. We develop an asymptotic theory for the front speed in a cellular flow in the limit of small molecular diffusivity and fast reaction, i.e., large Péclet (Pe) and Damköhler (Da) numbers. The front speed is expressed in terms of a periodic path—an instanton—that minimizes a certain functional. This leads to an efficient procedure to calculate the front speed, and to closed-form expressions for (logPe)−1≪Da≪Pe and for Da≫Pe. Our theoretical predictions are compared with (i) numerical solutions of an eigenvalue problem and (ii) simulations of the advection-diffusion-reaction equation.