Measurement and scaling analysis of critical energy for direct initiation of gaseous detonations

In this paper, the critical energies required for direct initiation of spherical detonations in four gaseous fuels (C₂H₂, C₂H₄, C₃H₈ and H₂)–oxygen mixtures at different initial pressures, equivalence ratios and with different amounts of argon dilution are reported. Using these data, a scaling analysis is performed based on two main parameters of the problem: the explosion length R _o that characterizes the blast wave and a characteristic chemical length that characterizes the detonation. For all the undiluted mixtures considered in this study, it is found that the relationship is closely given by R_o ? 26 l{R_{\rm o} \approx 26 \lambda} , where λ is the characteristic detonation cell size of the explosive mixture. While for C₂H₂–2.5O₂ mixtures highly diluted with argon, in which cellular instabilities are shown to play a minor role on the detonation propagation, the proportionality factor increases to 37.3, 47 and 54.8 for 50, 65 and 70% argon dilution, respectively. Using the ZND induction length Δ _I as the characteristic chemical length scale for argon diluted or ‘stable’ mixtures, the explosion length is also found to scale adequately with R_o ? 2320 D_I{R_{\rm o} \approx 2320 \Delta_I} .