Ignition of a combustible gas mixture by a high-current electric discharge in a closed volume

Fast combustion waves and chemi-ionization processes in a flame initiated by a powerful local plasma source in a closed reactor

“…A somewhat different behaviour is observed in the preflame phase when combustion is initiated by high-current surface discharge [5][6][7]. In this case, local brightly glowing objects that originated in the initiator begin to move along the axis of the cylindrical chamber.…”

“…The combustion was initiated by localized high-power discharges in which energy was released in small volumes as compared with a chamber volume. These include laser sparks, which are excited on the surface of solid target [1], direct laser heating in the focal spot [2], microwave discharges [3,4] and highcurrent slipping surface discharges [5][6][7]. In [8], the first results on a laser spark freely localized in a reactor chamber and working as a combustion igniter were presented.…”

“…In [1,3,6,8], this initial stage was called 'incomplete combustion '. In experiments with laser sparks and microwave discharges [1][2][3]8], we observed the formation of a wave of weak, relatively uniform 'blue' radiation preceding the volume combustion that appears as a bright burst throughout the reactor volume when the chemical energy in the branching chain reactions is converted almost entirely into heat and the equilibrium temperature is attained in the combusted gas mixture.…”

“…In some papers (e.g. [1][2][3][4][5][6]), these objects are called 'long-lived plasmoids'. In other investigations, brightly glowing long-lived objects that run away from the location of the energy release (their place of origin) are termed 'plasma bullets', 'plasma plumes' or 'plasma balls' [9][10][11][12][13][14].…”

“…The intent of this work was to find information (in addition to that presented in [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]) about the structure and dynamics of the formation of flames initiated by powerful discharges excited in a local small area of a reactor chamber as well as to acquire results on the role of chemi-ionization processes in the ignition of combustion and in the parameters of a developed flame.…”