Recent work on gaseous detonations

The paper reviews recent progress in the field of gaseous detonations, with sections on shock diffraction and reflection, the transition to detonation, hybrid, spherically-imploding, and galloping and stuttering fronts, their structure, their transmission and quenching by additives, the critical energy for initiation and detonation of more unusual fuels. The final section points out areas where our understanding is still far from being complete and contains some suggestions of ways in which progress might be made. Received 9 September 1999 / Accepted 10 May 2001     

Non-equilibrium model of steady detonations in aluminum particles - oxygen suspensions

Steady-state detonation regimes are studied on the basis of the mathematical model of detonation of aluminum particles in oxygen taking into account differences in velocities and temperatures of the mixture components. The final steady state is analyzed by determining the types of final singularities in the plane of relaxation parameters (the ratios of characteristic times of thermal and velocity relaxations and combustion). The regions of existence of steady-state regimes are found numerically, depending on the detonation wave velocity and relaxation parameters. Numerical illustrations of various flow types are presented, and the properties of the detonation wave structure caused by velocity nonequilibrium are examined. Qualitative agreement of data obtained with frozen relaxation parameters and their dependence on the flow parameters is shown. Received 5 July 1997 / Accepted 13 July 1998     

Effect of scale on the onset of detonations

Critical conditions for onset of detonations are compared at (1) two significantly different scales, (2) for a range of -air mixtures diluted with C, O, and (3) for two types of geometry – one a long obstructed channel and the other a room with a relatively small aspect ratios. For the range of scales, mixtures, and initial conditions tested, the detonation cell size was shown to be a reliable scaling parameter for characterization of detonation onset conditions. An experimental correlation is suggested for the critical detonation onset conditions. This correlation is based on a wide variety of available experimental data on DDT in mixtures of hydrogen and hydrocarbon fuels with air and on the use of detonation cell size as a scaling parameter characterizing the mixture. Received 14 November 1999 / Accepted 16 February 2000     

Explosive dispersal of solid particles

Abstract. The rapid dispersal of inert solid particles due to the detonation of a heterogeneous explosive, consisting of a packed bed of steel beads saturated with a liquid explosive, has been investigated experimentally and numerically. Detonation of the spherical charge generates a blast wave followed by a complex supersonic gas-solid flow in which, in some cases, the beads catch up to and penetrate the leading shock front. The interplay between the particle dynamics and the blast wave propagation was investigated experimentally as a function of the particle size (100–925 m) and charge diameter (8.9–21.2 cm) with flash X-ray radiography and blast wave instrumentation. The flow topology during the dispersal process ranges from a dense granular flow to a dilute gas-solid flow. Difficulties in the modeling of the high-speed gas-solid flow are discussed, and a heuristic model for the equation of state for the solid flow is developed. This model is incorporated into the Eulerian two-phase fluid model of Baer and Nunziato (1986) and simulations are carried out. The results of this investigation indicate that the crossing of the particles through the shock front strongly depends on the charge geometry, the charge size and the material density of the particles. Moreover, there exists a particle size limit below which the particles cannot penetrate the shock for the range of charge sizes considered. Above this limit, the distance required for the particles to overtake the shock is not very sensitive to the particle size but remains sensitive to the particle material density. Overall, excellent agreement was observed between the experimental and computational results. Received 16 August 1999 / Accepted 26 June 2000     

点火延迟时间对铝粉爆炸特性参数的影响

为了研究装置点火延迟时间对不同浓度粉尘爆炸压力和压力上升速率的影响,以铝粉为介质在5L圆柱形爆炸装置中进行系列爆炸实验。结果表明：装置点火延迟时间对铝粉爆炸压力和压力上升速率有十分显著的影响,且存在一个最佳点火延迟时间,此时最大爆炸压力最大;随着铝粉浓度的增加,最佳点火延迟时间先增加后保持不变。最佳点火延迟时间下的最大爆炸压力和最大压力上升速率明显高于点火延迟时间固定为60s时的。相对粉尘不同浓度均采用固定点火延迟时间,不同浓度时采用最佳点火延迟时间,所测得的粉尘最大爆炸压力和最大压力上升速率明显符合实际。

     

On the effect of grain size on shock sensitivity of heterogeneous high explosives

Analysis of available data on dependence of the critical detonation diameter of various heterogeneous condensed explosives on mean size of grains and voids demonstrated that in many cases surprising correlations between and the initial specific surface area of heterogeneous explosives exist, namely, or . The run distance to detonation in wedge test with sustained strong shock of constant amplitude also linearly correlates with , i.e. . At the same time, the shock sensitivity reversal effect is often observed when grain size of HE is reduced. Apart from that Moulard (1989) found that detonation critical diameter of plastic bonded explosive with mono- and bimodal RDX grain size distribution depends nonmonotonously on mean grain size. Complicated dependence of shock sensitivity of heterogeneous explosives on their specific surface area can be explained based on comparison of the critical hot spot size at given characteristic pressure behind shock wave with the mean heterogeneity size . At high characteristic pressure (relative to the critical ignition pressure) is small compared with and all specific surface area of heterogeneous explosive is available for the hot spot growth process in accordance with the grain burn concept. However, when characteristic pressure of shock wave decreases, increases and can become comparable with . In this case only relatively large potential hot spots with size can result in self-supported hot spot growth process and shock sensitivity is controlled by the specific surface area which corresponds to only larger heterogeneities and can be significantly smaller than initial specific surface area. Received 18 July 1996 / Accepted 6 November 1996     

Detonation in heterogeneous mixtures of liquids and particles

The mechanisms of detonation propagation in heterogeneous systems comprising closely packed particles and a liquid explosive are not fully understood. Recent experimental work has suggested the presence of two distinct modes of detonation propagation. One mode is valid for small particles (which is the regime we will address in this paper) with another mode for large particles. In this work we model numerically the detail of the wave interactions between the detonating liquid and the solid particles. The generic system of interest in our work is nitromethane and aluminium but our methodology can be applied to other liquids and particles. We have exercised our numerical models on the experiments described above. Our models can now qualitatively explain the observed variation in critical diameter with particle size. We also report some initial discrepancies in our predictions of wave speeds in nominally one dimensional experiments which can be explained by detailed modelling. We find that the complex wave interaction in the flow behind the leading shock in the detonating system of liquid and particles is characterised by at least two sonic points. The first is the standard CJ point in the reacting liquid. The second is a sonic point with respect to the sound speed in the inert material. This leads to a steady state zone in the flow behind the leading shock which is much longer than the reaction zone in the liquid alone. The width of this region scales linearly with particle size. Since the width of the subsonic region strongly influences the failure diameter we believe that this property of the flow is the origin of the observed increase in failure diameter with particle size for small inert particles. Received 3 December 1999 / Accepted 5 July 2000     

The influence of detonation cell size and regularity on the propagation of gaseous detonations in granular materials

This paper presents results from an experimental study of transmission of gaseous detonation waves through various granular filters. Spherical glass beads of 4 and 8 mm diameter and crushed rock of 7.5 mm volume averaged diameter were used as filter material. Varying the initial pressure of the detonating gas mixture controlled the detonation cell size. Dilution with argon was used to vary the detonation cell regularity. The complete range from almost no detonation velocity deficit to complete extinction of the combustion wave was observed. The existing correlation for gaseous detonation velocity deficit where is the critical diameter for the gaseous detonation and is the pore size, is found to be applicable for both smooth spherical particles and irregular crushed rock when considering irregular detonation structures. Soot films and pressure measurements show that as the detonation cell size is increased, reinitiation of a reanular filter until it finally no longer occurs at . Complete extinction of the combustion wave occurs at . These two limits appear to be about the same for irregular and regular detonation cell structures. For irregular structures without argon dilution, can be found for detonation wave failure, and can be found for complete extinction of the combustion wave. For argon dilution these limits are changed to and , respectively. The data are a bit scarce as a basis for proposing a new correlation for regular structures, but as a first approximation log is suggested for regular structures. The detonation or combustion wave is found to approach a constant velocity in the granular filter if not extinguished. Received 31 October 2001 / Accepted 15 July 2002 Published online 4 November 2002 Correspondence to: T. Slungaard (e-mail: slung@maskin.ntnu.no) An abridged version of this paper was presented at the 18th Int. Colloquium on the Dynamics of Explosions and Reactive Systems at Seattle, USA, from July 29 to August 3, 2001     

Global modelling of heat release during initiation and propagation of detonation and deflagration waves in methane-air-particle systems

In the present paper the direct initiation of a self supporting detonation and propagation of a low-speed combustion in methane-air-coal particles mixtures are solved. For particles, a heterogeneous regime of combustion is used, for methane one overall chemical reaction is taken into account: CH + 2O = CO + 2HO. The heat release rate is assumed to be defined as a delay time based on the well-known thermal theory of Frank-Kamenetsky (1967). The proposed model allows one to investigate the influence inert particles or coal dust on the explosion limits of methane-air mixtures. It is shown that the addition of a limited quantity of particles leads to detonation stability. In low speed combustion problems this method allows one to get a good correlation between theoretical and experimental velocities of steady flame propagation in carbon-hydrogen gaseous mixtures. Coal dust influence on gasdynamics of a methane-air mixture combustion is investigated in an unsteady problem by using of the global modelling. It is shown that limited coal dust concentration increases the flame wave intensity in lean methane-air mixtures in contrast to inert particles. In stoichiometric gas mixtures, sand and coal dusts decrease a flame velocity. Far from the ignition point flame, the velocity is largely defined by the dust mass concentration and not by the size of particles. Received 5 July 1997 / Accepted 13 July 1998     

Some observations of the controlled generation and onset of detonation

Detailed observation of deflagration to detonation transition (DDT) is inherently difficult. This is primarily due to the stochastic nature of flame acceleration and shock formation processes that in most practical situations give rise to the conditions required for detonation to emerge. The present paper describes how shock tube techniques have been used to control the conditions required for the onset of detonation. The paper first outlines some initial experiments involving turbulent flame acceleration before concentrating on experiments in a reflected shock mode. To aid interpretation of the observations the paper also presents a simple gasdynamic analysis of particle trajectories and considers the various physical and chemical processes that could lead to the onset of detonation. Received 27 November 2001 / Accepted 28 January 2002     

Detonation and deflagration initiation at the focusing of shock waves in combustible gaseous mixture

Abstract. Detonation and deflagration initiation under focusing conditions in a lean hydrogen-air mixture was experimentally investigated. The experiments were carried out in a shock tube equipped with the laser schlieren system and pressure transducers. Two-dimensional wedges (53° and 90°), semi-cylinder and parabola, were used as the focusing elements. The peculiarities of mild and strong ignition inside the reflector cavity were visualized. A hydrogen-nitrogen mixture was taken for comparison between reactive and inert mixture. It was found that mild ignition inside the reflector cavity can lead to detonation initiation outside the cavity. Schlieren pictures of the process were obtained and the dependence of the distance of detonation initiation on Mach number of the incident shock wave was established. Received 30 August 1999 / Accepted 23 February 2000     

Ignition and combustion study of JP-8 fuel in a supersonic flowfield

The ignition and combustion process of fuels in a supersonic combustion chamber plays an important role in the design of hypersonic propulsion system. However, it is a quite complicated process, due to the large variation of inlet air velocity, temperature, oxygen concentration, and shocks in the supersonic combustion chamber. The purpose of this paper is to observe the ignition delay and combustion phenomenon of the JP-8 fuel droplets in a supersonic flowfield experimentally. A shock tube is used as a basic test facility to create a high-speed and high-temperature flowfield as a supersonic combustor. In the experiments, several test parameters are controlled, such as shock velocity, gas temperature, fuel droplet size and distance, initial fuel temperature, and oxygen concentration, etc. The test results show the influence of these parameters on ignition delay, ignition limitation, and detonation. The most important factor in the experiment is the initial fuel temperature effect, which is influenced by the altitude variation during a flight. Received 4 August 1995 / Accepted 12 December 1995     

Shock reaction of hexane at 77, 193, and 273 K with special reference to shock pressure

Shock waves generated by projectile impacts were transmitted into hexane and the shocked hexane was analyzed by TCD-GC, FID-GC, GCMS, and FABMS for produced aliphatic hydrocarbons. The projectile length and its velocity were varied from 10 to 40 mm and from 220 to 1040 m/s, respectively. The initial temperature of the hexane was 77, 193 and 273 K. The major products detected throughout the reactions were hydrogen, light alkanes from C to C, and light alkenes from C to C. The minor products were heavy alkanes from C to C and soot-like materials. Experiments with varied projectile length revealed that the shock reaction occurred only while the shock wave was transmitted through hexane (about seconds). This short reaction time may be responsible for a lower yield of branched products in the shock reaction compared with yield produced by hexane pyrolysis in previous studies. In the shock reaction of hexane, the dehydrogenation was one of the important reactions and the recombination of hexyl radicals might play a role in the formation of -C. Experiments with varied initial temperature suggested that the molar yield of products depends not on the shock temperature but on the shock pressure, and that the reaction mechanisms for solid hexane and for liquid hexane are not identical. As the shock pressure increased, the relative yield of heavy products increased while that of light products decreased. This could be interpreted mainly by considering the activation volumes of the reaction involved. Received 12 September 1997 / Accepted 14 October 1997     

温度压力对瓦斯爆炸危险性影响的实验研究

为了研究瓦斯的爆炸危险性,选取对其影响较大的初始温度和初始压力进行实验研究。运用特殊环境20 L爆炸特性测试系统,对不同初始温度(25~200 ℃)和初始压力(0.1~1.0 MPa)条件下瓦斯的爆炸极限、最大爆炸压力和点火延迟时间进行实验研究。结果表明:高温高压条件使瓦斯的爆炸上限升高、下限降低,爆炸极限范围扩大;随着初始温度升高,瓦斯爆炸的最大爆炸压力逐渐减小;初始温度越高,点火延迟时间越短。通过对实验结果的分析,运用安全原理知识和危险度定义,给出初步评估瓦斯爆炸危险性的方法。     

Explosion characteristics of coal gas under various initial temperatures and pressures

Explosion limits data are essential for a quantitative risk assessment of explosion hazard associated with the use of coal gas. The present work is to investigate the influence of various initial temperatures and pressures on explosion characteristics of coal gas/air mixture. The explosion limits and the minimum ignition energy of coal gas/air mixture are obtained experimentally at various temperatures ranging from 20 to 80°C and pressures ranging from 0.1 to 0.2 MPa. An empirical equation is established from the experimental results for the effects of initial temperatures and pressures on explosion limits. By adding diluent (nitrogen) into coal gas/air mixtures, the dilution effects on the explosion limits have been explored as well, and a critical flammable concentration of coal gas is determined to be at 7.4–9.0% by volume. By means of a high-speed digital video camera, the flame front development is recorded and analyzed. The tests are carried out with lean, stoichiometric and rich mixtures of coal gas in air under the conditions of initial pressure and nitrogen addition. Furthermore, the influence of the initial pressure and the concentration on the explosion pressure is measured and compared against theoretical results, where a good agreement is observed.     

Effect of obstacle size and spacing on the initial stage of flame acceleration in a rough tube

Experiments were conducted to study flame acceleration in an orifice plate laden detonation tube. Orifice plate area blockage and spacing were varied to determine their affect on flame acceleration. The tube used in the study was 3.05 m long with an inner diameter of 14.0 cm. Experiments were primarily carried out with stoichiometric propane-air, however the affect of mixture reactivity was also investigated by varying the mixture equivalence ratio. The distance required for the flame to achieve a velocity equal to the speed of sound in the unburned gas mixture was measured. This run-up distance is used to characterize the early stage of the flame acceleration process. It was found that in all cases, the flame run-up distance decreased with increased blockage ratio and with increased mixture reactivity. It was found that for higher blockage ratios plates flame acceleration was greatest for a plate spacing of one tube diameter, but for lower blockage ratio plates the results obtained for one-half, one, and one and one-half tube diameter plate spacing were very similar. The most rapid flame acceleration was observed when the ratio of the orifice plate spacing and the orifice plate height (half of the difference between the tube and orifice plate diameter) is on the order of 5. It is proposed that this optimum acceleration corresponds to the condition where the plate spacing is roughly equal to the length of the unburned gas re-circulation zone downstream from the orifice plate. PACS 47.40.-x; 47.70.Fw This paper was based on work that was presented at the 19th Interna-tional Colloquium on the Dynamics of Explosions and Reactive Sys-tems, Hakone, Japan, July 27 - August 1, 2003     

基于详细化学反应动力学的激光点火模型

为研究含能材料在激光作用下的点火特性,从基本守恒方程组出发,基于详细化学反应动力学模型,建立了含能材料激光点火的气相模型.利用所建立的模型对RDX在激光辐照下的点火过程进行了数值模拟,得到了点火过程中的瞬时温度分布和组分分布,对点火特性进行了分析.计算得到的不同激光功率密度下的RDX点火延迟时间与文献结果一致.     

Experimental and numerical studies on transmission of gaseous detonation to a less sensitive mixture

A phenomenon of detonation transmission from one gaseous mixture (donor) to another of lower sensitivity (acceptor) was studied experimentally and numerically. The objective was to study effects of a donor mixture length and acceptor mixture sensitivity on the possibility of detonation transmission. Experiments were carried out in detonation tube 9.5–12 m long and 174 mm id. Three types of donor mixtures were used in the driver: stoichiometric acetylene/air, stoichiometric hydrogen/air, and 20% of hydrogen/air. Air mixtures with 14–29.6% of hydrogen were used as acceptors. Driver length varied from 0.17 to 5.6 m. Detonation transmission was studied for an abrupt opening of interface between two mixtures. Series of 1D and 2D calculations were made to simulate the problem numerically. Both, results of experiments and calculations revealed a set of parameters that effect transmission process. Critical conditions were determined as minimum driver length expressed in terms of characteristic chemical reaction length scales of acceptor mixture. They were shown to depend on differences in reaction rates and energy contents of donor and acceptor mixture. Received 6 January 1997 / Accepted 20 March 1997     

旋转爆轰胞格结构的实验和数值研究

对爆轰波在环形圆管(预混气体为2H2/O2/Ar)内的传播分别进行了实验和数值研究。实验研究 采用烟迹板记录了环形圆管内爆轰波的胞格结构。数值计算利用二阶附加半隐的Runge-Kutta法和五阶 WENO格式分别离散欧拉方程的时间和空间导数项,采用基元反应简化模型描述化学反应过程,得到了旋转 爆轰的流场及数值胞格结构。实验和数值模拟结果表明:爆轰波在圆环管中传播时,由于圆环的内壁发散、外 壁收敛,圆环内侧爆轰强度小于外侧,胞格尺寸较大;内侧OH 的分布区域大于外侧,浓度较低。旋转爆轰的 这种性质,使爆轰波能以稳定的角速度绕轴旋转。     

Ignition of liquid and dust fuel layers by gaseous detonation

Abstract. Ignition of a liquid layer and dust fuel layer by a detonation wave propagating in hydrogen-oxygen and acetylene-oxygen mixtures is reported. Experiments were carried out using a shock tube equipped with optical-quality observation windows. A schlieren system and a high-speed camera were used for measurements of ignition delay. Pressure transducers provided data necessary for measurements of the detonation wave velocity and pressure variation within the front of the interacted detonation wave and fuel layer. Kerosene, nitroglycerin and PETN were used as fuels. Investigation shows that the layer of liquid fuel can be efficiently ignited by detonation wave. It was found that the ignition delay of the fuel layer depends mostly on the detonation wave velocity and sensitivity of igniting fuels, and slightly on the layer thickness. Received 12 August 2001 / Accepted 1 July 2002 Published online 4 February 2003 Correspondence to: P. Wolanski (e-mail: wolanski@itc.pw.edu.pl) An abridged version of this paper was presented at the 18th Int. Colloquium on the Dynamics of Explosions and Reactive Systems at Seattle, USA, from July 29 to August 3, 2001