Practical Effects of Integrating Temperature with Strang Split Reactions

Abstract Many astrophysical environments involve convective or explosive flows driven by thermonuclear reactions (Type Ia supernovae, classical novae, X-ray bursts, stellar evolution). Simulation codes need to accurately capture the interactions between and hydrodynamics produce realistic models of these events. For reacting flows, operator splitting is commonly used couple reactions. Each process operates independent one another, but staggering updates in a symmetric fashion (via Strang splitting) second order accuracy time can be achieved. However, approximations are often made system, including choice whether not integrate temperature with species. Here we demonstrate through simple convergence test that integrating an energy equation together achieves best when modeling reactive splitting. Additionally, cannot achieved without equation.