Mechanisms of detonation transmission in layered H2-O2 mixtures

When a plane detonation propagating through an explosive comes into contact with a bounding explosive, different types of diffraction patterns, which may result in the transmission of a detonation into the bounding mixture, are observed. The nature of these diffraction patterns and the mode of detonation transmission depend on the properties of the primary and bounding explosives. An experimental and analytical study of such diffractions, which are fundamental to many explosive applications, has been conducted in a two channel shock tube, using H₂-O₂ mixtures of different equivalence ratios as the primary and bounding or secondary explosive. The combination of mixtures was varied from rich primary / lean secondary to lean primary / rich secondary since the nature of the diffraction was found to depend on whether the Chapman-Jouguet velocity of the primary mixture,D _p, was greater than or less than that of the secondary mixture,D _s. Schlieren framing photographs of the different diffraction patterns were obtained and used to measure shock and oblique detonation wave angles and velocities for the different diffraction patterns, and these were compared with the results of a steady-state shock-polar solution of the diffraction problem. Two basic types of diffraction and modes of detonation reinitiation were observed. WhenD _p>D _s, an oblique shock connecting the primary detonation to an oblique detonation in the secondary mixture was observed. WithD _p<D _s, two modes of reinitiation were observed. In some cases, ignition occurs behind the Mach reflection of the shock wave, which is transmitted into the secondary mixture when the primary detonation first comes into contact with it, from the walls of the shock tube. In other cases, a detonation is initiated in the secondary mixture when the reflected shock crosses the contact surface behind the incident detonation. These observed modes of Mach stem and contact surface ignition have also been observed in numerical simulations of layered detonation interactions, as has the combined oblique-shock oblique-detonation configuration whenD _p>D _s. WhenD _p>D _s, the primary wave acts like a wedge moving into the secondary mixture with velocityD _p after steady state has been reached, a configuration which also arises in oblique-detonation ramjets and hypervelocity drivers.