Extinction of incident hydrogen/air detonation in fine water sprays

TL;DR

This study uses numerical simulations to analyze how fine water sprays can extinguish hydrogen/air detonations, revealing the effects of water loading and droplet size on detonation behavior and extinction conditions.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of detonation extinction mechanisms in water sprays, including the influence of droplet size and water loading on detonation dynamics and cell size.

Findings

Detonation extinction occurs with higher water loading and smaller droplets.

Detonation cell size increases with water loading or smaller droplets.

Autoignition and thermal runaway alternate behind the shock front.

Abstract

Two-dimensional numerical simulations with Eulerian-Lagrangian method are conducted to study propagation and extinction of stoichiometric hydrogen/air detonations in fine water sprays. Parameterized by water mass loading and initial droplet size, a detonation extinction map is developed. Detonation extinction would occur with larger mass loading and/or smaller droplet size. General features of gas phase and water droplets and local detonation frontal structures are well captured. Numerical soot foils are used to characterize the influence of mass loading and droplet size on the detonation wave. The results also show that the detonation cell size increases with increased mass loading or decreased droplet size. Analysis on unsteady detonation extinction process is performed with the evolutions of detonation frontal structure, spatial distribution of thermochemical variables and interphase transfer rates (mass, energy, and momentum). Moreover, the chemical explosive mode analysis reveals that for stable detonation, thermal runaway dominates behind the Mach stem, while chemical propensities of auto-ignition and thermal runaway appear alternately behind the incident wave. When the induction zone length increases as the reaction front (RF) and shock front (SF) are decoupled, localized burned pockets surrounded by the autoignition chemical explosive mode can be observed. In addition, the interactions between detonation wave and water droplets demonstrate that the energy and momentum transfer have more direct interaction with SF and RF than the mass transfer. The interphase transfer rates increase with the water mass loading. Under the same mass loading, the smaller the droplet size, the larger the interphase transfer rates. However, the size of fine water droplets has a limited influence on the interphase momentum exchange.