Statistical analysis of detonation wave structure

Hydrocarbon fueled detonations are imaged in a narrow channel with simultaneous schlieren and broadband chemiluminescence at 5 MHz. Mixtures of stoichiometric methane and oxygen are diluted with various levels of nitrogen and argon to alter the detonation stability. Ethane is added in controlled amounts to methane, oxygen, nitrogen mixtures to simulate the effects of high-order hydrocarbons present in natural gas. Sixteen unique mixtures are characterized by performing statistical analysis on data extracted from the images. The leading shock front of the schlieren images is detected and the normal velocity is calculated at all points along the front. Probability distribution functions of the lead shock speed are generated for all cases and the moments of distribution are computed. A strong correlation is found between mixture instability parameters and the variance and skewness of the probability distribution; mixtures with greater instability have larger skewness and variance. This suggests a quantitative alternative to soot foil analysis for experimentally characterizing the extent of detonation instability. The schlieren and chemiluminescence images are used to define an effective chemical length scale as the distance between the shock front and maximum intensity location along the chemiluminescence front. Joint probability distribution functions of shock speed and chemical length scale enable statistical characterization of coupling between the leading shock and following reaction zone. For more stable, argon dilute mixtures, it is found that the joint distributions follow the trend of the quasi-steady reaction zone. For unstable, nitrogen diluted mixtures, the distribution only follows the quasi-steady solution during high-speed portions of the front. The addition of ethane is shown to have a stabilizing effect on the detonation, consistent with computed instability parameters.     

Investigation of the structure of detonation waves in a non-premixed hydrogen–air rotating detonation engine using mid-infrared imaging

The structure of detonation waves propagating through the annular channel of an optically accessible non-premixed rotating detonation engine (RDE) are investigated using mid-infrared imaging. The RDE is operated on hydrogen–air mixtures for a range of air mass flow rates and equivalence ratios. Instantaneous images of the radiation intensity from water vapor are acquired using a mid-infrared camera and a band-pass filter (2.890?±?0.033?µm). The instantaneous mid-infrared images reveal the stochastic nature of the detonation wave structure, position and angle of oblique and reflected shock waves, presence of shear layer separating products from the previous and current cycles, and extent of mixing between the reactants and products in the reactant fill zone in front of the detonation wave. The images show negligible signal directly in front of the detonation waves suggesting that there is minimal mixing between the reactants and products from the previous cycle ahead of the detonation wave for most operating conditions. The mid-infrared images provide insights useful for improving fundamental understanding of the detonation structure in RDEs and benchmark data for evaluating modeling and simulation results of RDEs.     

化学反应和球面聚心爆轰波的相互作用

考察球面爆轰波聚心传播过程中,波阵面附近压力和温度不断升高引起化学反应进程的改变;对比氢氧可燃气体与氮气的数值模拟结果,分析化学反应对波面温度和压力的影响,从而考察Zeldovich理论预测聚心爆轰波后参数的精确性.数值结果表明,爆轰波聚心传播初期,放热的燃烧反应对波后热力学参数起主导作用;传播后期,波阵面趋近于对称中心时,吸热的气体解离反应变得非常活跃,解离反应对后期的汇聚压力影响不大,但会在很大程度上限制汇聚温度的升高.     

Dynamic transition in the structure of an energetic crystal during chemical reactions at shock front prior to detonation

Mechanical stimuli in energetic materials initiate chemical reactions at shock fronts prior to detonation. Shock sensitivity measurements provide widely varying results, and quantum-mechanical calculations are unable to handle systems large enough to describe shock structure. Recent developments in reactive force-field molecular dynamics (ReaxFF-MD) combined with advances in parallel computing have paved the way to accurately simulate reaction pathways along with the structure of shock fronts. Our multimillion-atom ReaxFF-MD simulations of l,3,5-trinitro-l,3,5-triazine (RDX) reveal that detonation is preceded by a transition from a diffuse shock front with well-ordered molecular dipoles behind it to a disordered dipole distribution behind a sharp front.     

Formation of transverse waves in oblique detonations

The structure of oblique detonation waves stabilized on a hypersonic wedge in mixtures characterized by a large activation energy is investigated via steady method of characteristics (MoC) calculations and unsteady computational flowfield simulations. The steady MoC solutions show that, after the transition from shock-induced combustion to an overdriven oblique detonation, the shock and reaction complex exhibit a spatial oscillation. The degree of overdrive required to suppress this oscillation was found to be nearly equal to the overdrive required to force a one-dimensional piston-driven detonation to be stable, demonstrating the equivalence of two-dimensional steady oblique detonations and one-dimensional unsteady detonations. Full unsteady computational simulations of the flowfield using an adaptive refinement scheme showed that these spatial oscillations are transient in nature, evolving in time into transverse waves on the leading shock front. The formation of left-running transverse waves (facing upstream) precedes the formation of right-running transverse waves (facing downstream). Both sets of waves are convected downstream away from the wedge in the supersonic flow behind the leading oblique front, such that the mechanism of instability must continuously generate new transverse waves from an initially uniform flow. Together, these waves define a cellular structure that is qualitatively similar to a normal propagating detonation.     

Cell-like structure of unstable oblique detonation wave from high-resolution numerical simulation

A comprehensive numerical study was carried out to investigate the unsteady cell-like structures of oblique detonation waves (ODWs) for a fixed Mach 7 inlet flow over a wedge of 30° turning angle. The effects of grid resolution and activation energy were examined systematically at a dimensionless heat addition of 10. The ODW front remains stable for a low activation energy regardless of grid resolution, but becomes unstable for a high activation energy featuring a cell-like wave front structure. Similar to the situation with an ordinary normal detonation wave (NDW), a continuous increase in the activation energy eventually causes the wave-front oscillation to transit from a regular to an irregular pattern. The wave structure of an unstable ODW, however, differs considerably from that of a NDW. Under the present flow condition, triple points and transverse waves propagate downstream, and the numerical smoke-foil record exhibits traces of triple points that rarely intersect with each other. Several instability-driving mechanisms were conjectured from the highly refined results. Since the reaction front behind a shock wave can be easily destabilized by disturbance inherent in the flowfield, the ODW front becomes unstable and displays cell-like structures due to the local pressure oscillations and/or the reflected shock waves originating from the triple points. The combined effects of various instability sources give rise to a highly unstable and complex flow structure behind an unstable ODW front.     

凝聚炸药爆轰波在高声速材料界面上的折射现象分析

凝聚炸药爆轰在边界高声速材料约束下传播时,爆轰波会在约束材料界面上产生复杂的折射现象.本文针对凝聚炸药爆轰波在高声速材料界面上的折射现象展开理论和数值模拟分析.首先通过建立在爆轰ZND模型上的改进爆轰波极曲线理论给出爆轰波折射类型,然后发展一种求解爆轰反应流动方程的基于特征理论的二阶单元中心型Lagrange计算方法来数值模拟典型的爆轰波折射过程.从改进爆轰波极曲线理论和二阶Lagrange方法数值模拟给出的结果看出,凝聚炸药爆轰波在高声速材料界面上的折射类型有四种:反射冲击波的正规折射、带束缚前驱波的非正规折射、带双Mach反射的非正规折射、带λ波结构的非正规折射.     

Visualization of the non-steady state oblique detonation wave phenomena around hypersonic spherical projectile

We studied experimentally the shock waves and combustion waves generated by a hypersonic spherical projectile in an explosive mixture. An acetylene/oxygen mixture diluted with argon (2C₂H₂ + 5O₂ + 7Ar) was used with various initial pressures (detonation cell sizes) to observe optically with a shadowgraph imaging system a shock-induced combustion (SIC), a stable oblique detonation wave (ODW), and a wave called a Straw Hat type consisting of a strong SIC and ODW. The criticality of stabilizing an ODW around a projectile is expressed by the ratio of the projectile diameter, d, to the cell size, λ, as d/λ = 3.63–4.84. Although the Straw Hat type wave in the vicinity of criticality is an unstable phenomena, it has been mainly observed by a single frame picture to date, so that it is difficult to discuss the time history of its wave structure. In this study, it was remarkable to directly carry out continuous optical observations using a high speed video camera which can continuously film 100 pictures with a 1 μs frame speed so as to allow an investigation of the sustaining mechanism of the unstable wave structure. Our results allowed the identification of an increase in unsteadiness in the relative distance between the projectile fronts and the transition points to an ODW as the time increased. They also showed local explosions in the SIC region near transition point transformed the ODW front upstream.     

High resolution numerical simulation of the structure of 2-D gaseous detonations

Two dimensional numerical simulation of the structure of gaseous detonation is investigated by utilizing the single step Arrhenius kinetic reaction mechanism in both high and low activation energy mixtures, characterized by their irregular and regular detonation structure, respectively. All the computations are performed on a small Beowulf cluster with six nodes. The dependency of the structure on the grid resolution is performed and it is found that, resolution of more than 300 cells per hrl is required to demonstrate the role of hydrodynamic instabilities, (KH and RM instabilities) in detonation propagation in irregular structures, while due to the absence of fine-scale structures, resolution of 50 cells per hrl, gives the physical structure of detonation with regular structures. Results show that the transverse waves in irregular structure are significantly stronger than the transverse wave in regular structure detonation, which can enhance the burning rate of the unburned pockets behind the shock front. Results for resolution of 600 cells per hrl illustrate that, in addition to the primary mode, the interaction of large vortices with the shock front provides secondary modes in the structure which leads to the irregularity of the structure in high activation energy mixture. In contrast with the results obtained for regular structure, which no unburned gas pockets and vortices observed behind the front, the results for irregular structure reveal that most portions of the gases, escape from shock compression and create large unburned gas pockets behind the both weak section of the Mach stem and the incident wave, which will burn eventually by the turbulent mixing due to the vortices associated with hydrodynamic instabilities. Therefore, the ignition mechanism in irregular structure is due to the both shock compression and by turbulent mixing associated with hydrodynamic instabilities, while the shock compression yields the ignition mechanism in regular structure detonation.     

Aluminum oxidation in shock and detonation waves

Experimental data on the detonation velocity of aluminized explosives and the temperature of the material behind the shock wave front in condensed media, including aluminum-oxidizer mixtures were examined. It was demonstrated that the oxidation of aluminum to the highest oxide behind the front of shock and detonation waves is limited by the dissociation of aluminum oxides at temperatures above 3.5 kK.     

Detonation development in hydrogen/air mixtures inside a closed chamber: role of a cold wall

Detonation development from a hot spot has been extensively studied, where ignition occurs earlier than that in the surrounding mixtures. It has also been reported that a cool spot can induce detonation for large hydrocarbon fuels with Negative Temperature Coefficient (NTC) behavior, since ignition could happen earlier at lower temperatures. In this work we find that even for hydrogen/air mixtures without NTC behaviors, a cold wall can still initiate and promote detonation. End-wall reflection of the pressure wave and wall heat loss introduce an exothermic center outside the boundary layer, and then autoignitive reaction fronts on both sides may evolve into detonation waves. The right branch can be further strengthened by appropriate temperature gradient near the cold wall, and exhibits different dynamics at various initial conditions. The small excitation time and the large diffusivity of hydrogen provide the possibility for detonation development within the limited space between the autoignition kernel and the cold wall. Moreover, detonation may also develop near the flame front, which may or may not co-exist with detonation waves from the cold wall. Correspondingly, wall heat flux evolution exhibits different responses to detailed dynamic structures. Finally, we propose a regime diagram describing different combustion modes including normal flame, autoignition, and detonation from the wall and/or the reaction front. The boundary of normal flame regime qualitatively agrees with the prediction by the Livengood-Wu Integral method, while the detonation development from both the end wall and the reaction front observes Zel'dovich mechanism. Compared to hydrocarbons, hydrogen is resistant to knock onset but it is more prone to superknock development. The latter mode becomes more destructive in the presence of wall heat loss. This study isolates and identifies the role of wall heat loss on a potential mechanism for superknock development in hydrogen-fueled spark-ignition engines.     

Numerical study on three-dimensional C-J detonation waves: detailed propagating mechanism and existence of OH radical

An unsteady three-dimensional simulation is performed for a hydrogen/air C–J detonation in a rectangular tube, where a detailed chemical reaction model is used to reveal the C–J detonation structure. In this simulation, detailed propagating detonation structures for a diagonal mode are described in three-dimensions. The detonation front structures, the line of triple points, and the strong explosions at the corners of the rectangular tube are revealed by using a three-dimensional numerical visualization. From the spatial isosurface profiles of H₂ mass fraction, it is confirmed that the triple point lines have a role of “shutter” to generate unburned gas pockets and become of a ring shape behind the detonation front due to its explosion. The explosion process and its influence on an induction delay are observed by visualizing the spatial isosurface profiles of OH mass fraction. Moreover, a high “peninsula-shaped” OH mass fraction area, which has been experimentally reported, is reproduced on the side wall of the rectangular tube.     

Effect of debris fragments on direct initiation of spherical detonation waves in stoichiometric oxygen/hydrogen mixtures

Paper reports a result of experiments of spherical shock waves generated by explosions of micro-explosives weighing from 1 to 10 mg ignited by the irradiation of Q-switched laser beam and direct initiation to a spherical detonation wave in stoichiometric oxygen/hydrogen mixtures at 10–200 kPa. We visualized the interaction of debris particles ejected micro-explosives’ surface with shock waves by using double exposure holographic interferometry and high-speed video recording. Upon explosion, minute inert debris launched supersonically from micro-charge surface precursory to shock waves initiated spherical detonation waves. To examine this effect we attached 0.5–2.0 μm diameter SiO₂ particles densely on micro-explosive surfaces and observed that the supersonic particles, significantly promoted the direct initiation of spherical detonation waves. The domain and boundary of detonation wave initiations were experimentally obtained at various initial pressures and the amount of micro-charges.     

Experimental observations of flame acceleration and transition to detonation following shock-flame interaction

Observations are presented from experiments where laminar flame bubbles were perturbed successively by incident and reflected shock waves. Significant flame acceleration was observed in many instances, with the flame closely coupled to the reflected shock wave. The coupled waves are interpreted using a generalized Hugoniot analysis. As the incident shock velocity increased, detonation emerged near the highly convolved reaction zone. Prior to detonation the external visual attributes of the combustion fronts appear identical to turbulent combustion. However, they cannot be due to classical isotropic turbulence. The overall conclusion is that the observed enhancement of combustion is driven by chemi-acoustic interactions and related gas-dynamic effects. An analysis of the prevailing thermodynamic states suggests that thermal auto-ignition chemistry could also play a significant role prior to the onset of detonation.     

Nonequilibrium Zeldovich-von Neumann-Doring theory and reactive flow modeling of detonation

This paper discusses the Nonequilibrium Zeldovich-von Neumann-Doring (NEZND) theory of self-sustaining detonation waves and the Ignition and Growth reactive flow model of shock initiation and detonation wave propagation in solid explosives. The NEZND theory identified the nonequilibrium excitation processes that precede and follow the exothermic decomposition of a large high explosive molecule into several small reaction product molecules. The thermal energy deposited by the leading shock wave must be distributed to the vibrational modes of the explosive molecule before chemical reactions can occur. The induction time for the onset of the initial endothermic reactions can be calculated using high pressure-high temperature transition state theory. Since the chemical energy is released well behind the leading shock front of a detonation wave, a physical mechanism is required for this chemical energy to reinforce the leading shock front and maintain its overall constant velocity. This mechanism is the amplification of pressure wavelets in the reaction zone by the process of de-excitation of the initially highly vibrationally excited reaction product molecules. This process leads to the development of the three-dimensional structure of detonation waves observed for all explosives. For practical predictions of shock initiation and detonation in hydrodynamic codes, phenomenological reactive flow models have been developed. The Ignition and Growth reactive flow model of shock initiation and detonation in solid explosives has been very successful in describing the overall flow measured by embedded gauges and laser interferometry. This reactive flow model uses pressure and compression dependent reaction rates, because time-resolved experimental temperature data is not yet available. Since all chemical reaction rates are ultimately controlled by temperature, the next generation of reactive flow models will use temperature dependent reaction rates. Progress on a statistical hot spot ignition and growth reactive flow model with multistep Arrhenius chemical reaction pathways is discussed. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

Detonation front structure and the competition for radicals

We examine the role of competition for radical species in determining detonation front structure for hydrogen and selected hydrocarbon fuels in air and oxygen. Numerical simulations and detailed reaction mechanisms are used to characterize the reaction zone length, shape, and sensitivity to temperature variation. We find that the effect of the competition for radicals on the energy release rate characteristics varies significantly for the chosen mixtures. Hydrogen exhibits a strong effect while in methane and ethane mixtures the effect is absent. Other hydrocarbons including acetylene, ethylene, and propane fall between these extreme cases. This competition is manifested by a peak in effective activation energy associated with a shift in the dominant reaction pathway in the initial portion of the reaction zone. The peak of the effective activation energy is centered on the extended second explosion limit. A five-step, four species reaction model of this competition process has been developed and calibrated against numerical simulations with detailed chemistry for hydrogen. The model includes a notional radical species and reactive intermediate in addition to reactants and products. The radical species undergoes chain-branching and there is a competing pathway through the reactive intermediate that is mediated by a three-body reaction followed by decomposition of the intermediate back to the radical species. We have used this model in two-dimensional unsteady simulations of detonation propagation to examine the qualitative differences in the cellular instability of detonation fronts corresponding to various degrees of competition between the chain-branching and reactive intermediate production. As the post-shock state approaches the region of competition between the radical and reactive intermediate, the detonation front becomes irregular and pockets of the reactive intermediate appear behind the front, but the detonation continues to propagate.     

Formation and characteristics of composite reaction – Shock clusters in narrow channels

High-speed schlieren visualizations show that a composite reaction-shock cluster structure is formed in the last flame acceleration stage prior to detonation transition for ethylene/oxygen mixture in a narrow channel. The composite structure is bounded by a normal shock at the leading edge of the structure, and series of parallel oblique shocks interweave with reaction front on the other end in the cluster. Propagating velocity of the reaction front at the inception of the cluster is ～ 45–50% of Chapman-Jouguet detonation velocity of the mixture. Reaction front accelerates rapidly after the formation of the reaction-shock cluster, and run into detonation in tens of microseconds except for very lean mixtures. The angle between the parallel oblique shocks in the cluster and the side wall, defined as ω-angle, is found to be constant for a specific mixture as the reaction wave propagates. Dependence of ω-angle on mixture equivalence ratio and channel size are investigated in the study. Analysis shows that DDT distance is linearly proportional to ω-angle, and an empirical correlation is derived.     

Influence of Small Xe Additives on the Detonation Threshold for O<Subscript>2</Subscript>−H<Subscript>2</Subscript>−He Mixtures

The effect of a small Xe additive on the conditions of detonation initiation in incident shock waves of various intensities is studied. The experiments are carried out on a shock tube facility with 10% H₂ + 5% O₂ + 85% He, 10% H₂ + 5% O₂ + 84.75% He + 0.25% Xe, and 10% H₂ + 5% O₂ + 84.5% He + 0.5% Xe mixtures. The addition of Xe led to a shift in the detonation threshold toward weaker shock waves. This effect is probably due to a significant increase in the frequency of high-energy collisions between O₂ and Xe molecules in the shock wave front in comparison with that characteristic of the equilibrium behind the wave, a factor that significantly accelerates the chemical reaction between O₂ and H₂ behind the front. The effect is a consequence of the formation of a specific translational nonequilibrium in the wave front. A previously performed numerical study of the distributions of pairs of O₂ and Xe molecules in the shock wave front shows that this effect can be enhanced by decreasing the Xe concentration from 0.5 to 0.25%. The experiment performed indirectly confirms this conclusion. It turns out that, for the mixture with 0.25% Xe, the detonation threshold shifts more strongly to the region of weaker shock waves than for the mixture with 0.5% Xe. This result gives additional arguments in favor of the assumption that this effect is due to the specifics of the translational nonequilibrium in the wave front.     

低温下JB-9014钝感炸药DSD参数研究

 爆轰冲击波动力学（Detonation Shock Dynamics,DSD）是目前研究爆轰波非理想传播的有效途径。利用DSD的广义几何光学模型,研究了大长径比药柱中爆轰波非理想传播现象,根据-30 ℃下直径为10～30 mm药柱的直径效应实验数据,利用遗传算法确定了低温下JB-9014钝感炸药的DSD参数。由DSD参数计算得到了JB-9014药柱中的定态波形和爆速,计算结果与实验结果符合。     

气相爆轰波在分叉管中传播现象的数值研究

数值研究气相爆轰波在分叉管中的传播现象.用二阶附加半隐龙格-库塔法和5阶WENO格式求解二维欧拉方程,用基元反应描述爆轰化学反应过程,得到了密度、压力、温度、典型组元质量分数场及数值胞格结构和爆轰波平均速度.结果表明:气相爆轰波在分叉管中传播,分叉口左尖点的稀疏波导致诱导激波后压力、温度急剧下降,诱导激波和化学反应区分离,爆轰波衰减为爆燃波(即爆轰熄灭).分离后的诱导激波在垂直支管右壁面反射,并导致二次起爆.畸变的诱导激波在水平和垂直支管中均发生马赫反射.分叉口上游均匀胞格区和分叉口附近大胞格区的边界不是直线,其起点通常位于分叉口左尖点上游或恰在左尖点.水平支管中马赫反射三波点迹线始于右尖点下游.分叉口左尖点附近的流场中出现了复杂的旋涡结构、未反应区及激波与旋涡作用.旋涡加速了未反应区的化学反应速率.反射激波与旋涡作用并使旋涡破碎.反射激波与未反应区作用,加速其反应消耗,并形成一个内嵌的射流.数值计算得到的波系演变和胞格结构与实验定性一致.