A numerical study of the mechanisms of self-reignition in low-overdrive detonations

Abstract

Below a threshold in overdrive, both stability analysis and numerical simulations predict that one-dimensional detonations in high activation energy mixtures behave as a chaotic sequence of failures followed by reignition. Instead, less chaotic, cellular detonations almost invariably occur in experiments. Numerical simulation, based on the Euler equations with single step chemistry, shows that a ZND detonation initially fails in that regime. The detonation splits into a weaker shock, a surface discontinuity separating reacted from unreacted fluid, and a rarefaction wave. However, the detonation is eventually reignited by the explosion of a small gas pocket, in a process reminiscent of deflagration to detonation transition. In the fluid heated by the leading shock, the chemical reaction occurs slowly at first, but becomes faster as heat is released, until the pocket explodes. Small differences in initial temperature result in large enough differences in reaction time sufficient for one pocket of fluid to explode. In two dimensions, the explosion occurs earlier because an oblique shock structure develops which unevenly heats the fluid that passes through the leading shock. Hence, pockets that underwent more heating will explode sooner. As it moves upstream, the two-dimensional explosion, meets the leading shock and the detonation quickly develops a transverse wave structure.