Detonation initiation in a channel via facing injection of flame jets

Abstract

Detonation transition was experimentally investigated using flame jetting through the orifice of a small sub-chamber, which was equipped on the side wall near the closed end of the main channel (square inner closs section, 50 mm on a side) filled with a stoichiometric hydrogen-oxygen mixture at an initial pressure of 80 kPa. The number of sub-chambers and orifice diameters were changed as 1, 2, 4 (called as FJ1, FJ2, FJ4, respectively) and 3, 5, 7 mm, respectively, and the facing flame jets were collided with each other in FJ2 and FJ4. Two regimes of detonation transition were observed: (i) deflagration-to-detonation transition (DDT) accompanied by flame acceleration process and (ii) direction initiation of a detonation near the flame jetting section. The flame propagation distance required for detonation transition was one-half to one-third for regime (i) compared to single-spark ignition without flame jet, and below one-sixth for regime (ii). Except for the case of regime (ii), observed for an orifice diameter of 5 or 7 mm of FJ4, the detonation transition distance had no significant effect on the types of flame jetting and orifice diameters. Time-resolved schlieren recordings showed that the choked jet of combustion products drove the shock wave preceding the flame front, and induced multi-dimensional flame motion and repeated shock-flame interactions in the confinement. These behaviors enhanced flame velocity at the ignition end by a factor of 4 to 7 in FJ1 and FJ2, compared to single-spark ignition. The effect of these enhanced flame velocities on DDT distances was consistent with the semi-empirical model of flame acceleration process in a smooth tube. The schlieren recordings and pressure measurements at the closed end indicated that the possible factors for the initiation of detonation in regime (ii) were the mixing of reacted and unreacted gas induced by the repeated strong shock-flame interaction and the hot spot formed by shock-shock interaction driven by the facing flame jetting.