Effects of wave interaction on ignition and deflagration-to-detonation transition in ethylene/air mixtures behind a reflected shock

TL;DR

This study uses numerical simulations to analyze how wave interactions influence ignition and the transition from deflagration to detonation in ethylene/air mixtures behind reflected shocks, revealing multiple ignition modes and hot spot formations.

Contribution

It provides a detailed numerical investigation of different combustion modes and hot spot mechanisms during DDT in ethylene/air mixtures, highlighting wave interaction effects.

Findings

Four ignition and DDT modes identified.

Three hot spots form during detonation development.

Wave interactions critically influence ignition modes.

Abstract

Dynamics of ethylene autoignition and Deflagration-to-Detonation Transition (DDT) in a one-dimensional shock tube are numerically investigated using a skeletal chemistry including 10 species and 10 reactions. Different combustion modes are investigated through considering various premixed gas equivalence ratios (0.2 to 2.0) and incident shock wave Mach numbers (1.8 to 3.2). Four ignition and DDT modes are observed from the studied cases, i.e., no ignition, deflagration combustion, detonation after reflected shock and deflagration behind the incident shock. For detonation development behind the reflected shock, three autoignition hot spots are formed. The first one occurs at the wall surface after the re-compression of the reflected shock and contact surface, which further develops to a reaction shock because of the explosion in the explosion regime. The other two are off the wall, respectively caused by the reflected shock rarefaction wave interaction and reaction induction in the compressed mixture. The last hot spot develops to a reaction wave and couples with the reflected shock after a DDT process, which eventually leads to detonation combustion. For deflagration development behind the reflected shock, the wave interactions, wall surface autoignition hot spot as well as its induction of reaction shock are qualitatively similar to the mode of detonation after incident shock reflection, before the reflected shock rarefaction wave collision point. However, only one hot spot is induced after the collision, which also develops to a reaction wave but cannot catch up with the reflected shock. For deflagration behind the incident shock, deflagration combustion is induced by the incident shock compression whereas detonation occurs after the shock reflection.