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Proceedings of the Combustion Institute 31 (2007) 2421–2428
www.elsevier.com/locate/proci
Abstract
The objective of the research outlined in this paper is to provide experimental and computational data
on initiation, propagation, and stability of gaseous fuel–air detonations in tubes with U-bends implying
their use for design optimization of pulse detonation engines (PDEs). The experimental results with the
U-bends of two curvatures indicate that, on the one hand, the U-bend of the tube promotes the shock-in-
duced detonation initiation. On the other hand, the detonation wave propagating through the U-bend is
subjected to complete decay or temporary attenuation followed by the complete recovery in the straight
tube section downstream from the U-bend. Numerical simulation of the process reveals some salient fea-
tures of transient phenomena in U-tubes.
2006 Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of The Combustion Institute.
Keywords: Gaseous detonation; Detonation initiation; Tube with U-bend; Shock-to-detonation transition
1540-7489/$ - see front matter 2006 Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of The Combustion Institute.
doi:10.1016/j.proci.2006.07.197
2422 S.M. Frolov et al. / Proceedings of the Combustion Institute 31 (2007) 2421–2428
Fig. 2. Mean shock wave velocities at different measuring segments of the tubes with U-bends in five representative runs:
(a) setup of Fig. 1a and (b) setup of Fig. 1b.
a b 350
IW IW
180
PT1 300 PT1
150 SE
Pressure / atm
PT2 250
120 PT2
Pressure / atm
200
PT3 PT3
90 150 PT4
PT4
PT5
60 100
PT5
ODW RW
30 SE RW 50
PT6 PT7
0
0
Time / μs Time / μs
c 450 d
IW IW
300
400 PT1 PT1
350 250
PT2
300 PT2
SE 200
Pressure / atm
Pressure / atm
250 PT3
PT4 PT3
200 150
PT5 PT4
150
100
PT5
100
PT6
RW 50 DW RW
50 DW
PT7 PT6
0 0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 0 1000 2000 3000 4000
Time / μs Time / μs
Fig. 3. Pressure records registered by transducers PT1–PT7 in four representative runs with different mean SW velocities
at the entrance to a U-bend (measuring segment PT1–PT2 in Fig. 1a): (a) Run 2, V = 805 m/s; (b) Run 3, V = 1083 m/s;
(c) Run 4, V = 1242 m/s; and (d) Run 5, V = 1741 m/s. IW = incident wave, RW = reflected wave.
2424 S.M. Frolov et al. / Proceedings of the Combustion Institute 31 (2007) 2421–2428
locations along the symmetry surface of the U- tance L between two vertical dashed lines corre-
bend tube, as well as along its internal and exter- sponds to the length of the U-bend segment
nal walls were stored during the calculations. measured along the corresponding surface. The
Based on these numerical ‘pressure records,’ the SW velocity is normalized by the CJ detonation
corresponding propagation velocities of the lead velocity D0, so that the horizontal dashed line
shock front were calculated. In addition, 2D flow D/D0 = 1 corresponds to the CJ detonation veloc-
fields were stored to visualize the flow pattern. ity. Four cases with different velocities of the
Figure 4 shows the predicted SW velocities decaying reactive shock at the entrance to the
along the internal wall (a), symmetry surface (b), U-bend were analyzed, namely 0.60D0 (curves 1
and external wall (c) of the tube of Fig. 1a. Dis- in Fig. 4), 0.73D0 (2), 0.75D0 (3), and 1.03D0 (4).
Entering the U-bend, the shock front started to
interact with compressive and expensive surfaces.
As a result, different portions of the front exhibit-
ed different behavior due to temporally and spa-
tially shifted interaction with various
compression and rarefaction waves and due to
finite rate of chemical reaction. At the internal
wall (Fig. 4a), the shock velocity decreased to
the value between 0.2D0 (curve 1) and 0.4D0
(curve 4) nearly in the middle of the U-bend,
which was caused by the rarefaction fan at the
expensive surface. Subsequent velocity jump to
about 0.4D0 (curve 1) and 0.8D0 (curve 4) at the
internal wall was caused by interaction with a
SW reflected from the external compressive wall.
After passing through the U-bend, shock veloci-
ties at the internal wall exhibited a second jump
also caused by interaction with a reflected SW.
At the symmetry surface (Fig. 4b) and external
wall (Fig. 4c), the evolution of the lead shocks was
somewhat different. Contrary to Fig. 4a, the lead
shocks exhibited velocity increase on the entry to
the U-bend. All other qualitative features were
similar to those in Fig. 4a. Quantitatively, mean
propagation velocities of the SW along the sym-
metry surface and external wall were higher than
along the internal wall.
The results of Fig. 4 correspond with the exper-
imental observations of Fig. 2a. Curves 1 in Fig. 4
correlate qualitatively with the results of Runs 1
and 2 in Fig. 2a with the decaying SW. Curves 4
correspond to the results of Run 5 with detona-
tion propagation through the U-bend. Curves 3
correspond to the results of Run 4 with SDT.
Unfortunately, the experimental results of Run 3
with the ‘‘delayed’’ detonation initiation were
not reproduced computationally. Nevertheless,
curve 2 in Fig. 4 exhibit a ‘‘delayed’’ velocity jump
of (0.1–0.2)D0 at L = 0.5 m, which appeared not
sufficient for detonation initiation.
Analysis of pressure histories in the detonation
wave passing through the U-bend as a function of
polar angle a measured from the entrance to the
U-bend with the origin at the curvature center
Fig. 4. Predicted normalized shock velocities along the revealed some other important features. The pres-
internal wall (a), symmetry surface (b), and external wall
sure histories relevant to a = 0 indicated that the
(c) of the tube with U-bend. The origin of L-axis is
located at the entrance to the U-bend. The regions initially planar detonation front exhibited pres-
between vertical dashed lines correspond to the U-bend sure disturbances in the wake. The first evidence
section. Curves 1–4 correspond to different incident of the compression wave appeared on the pressure
shock velocities: 1, D/D0 = 0.60; 2, 0.73; 3, 0.75; and curve at the external wall. This compression
4, 1.03. propagated towards the internal wall. At a > 0,
2426 S.M. Frolov et al. / Proceedings of the Combustion Institute 31 (2007) 2421–2428
a pressure drop at the internal wall and symmetry diameters downstream from the U-bend exit. It
surface was observed, whereas the pressure trace took some distance (at least 5–6 tube diameters)
at the external wall showed the existence of the for the DW to attain a sort of regular structure
overdriven DW. At a = 67.5, the shock pressure after exiting from the U-bend. Density distur-
at the internal wall attained a nearly minimal val- bances in the wake of the propagating detonation
ue, which was consistent with the minimal shock also disappeared at a distance of about 5–6 tube
velocity in Fig. 4a (curve 4). The pressure curve diameters.
at the internal wall had a pressure hump charac- Figure 6 shows the comparison of calculations
teristic of a SE (Fig. 3c). This SE resulted in an of SDT in tubes with U-bends of different curva-
extremely high-pressure spike (above 8 MPa) at ture at identical initial conditions. Figures 6a
the internal wall at a = 112.5. At the exit from and b correspond to the setups of Figs. 1a and
the U-bend, the wave structure differed consider- b, respectively. In both computational runs, the
ably from the planar incident wave at the U-bend primary SW was generated by a high-pressure
entrance. Different portions of the lead front had domain in a lower left end of the tube with a pres-
different velocities and pressure amplitudes. The sure of 18 MPa and temperature of 298 K. The
tails of the pressure traces exhibited regular oscil- resulting SW entering the U-bend had a velocity
lations. Large-scale unburned fuel pockets far of about 1000 m/s. It can be seen that a single-
behind the lead shock front were detected during head detonation was initiated by such a SW in
detonation transition through the U-bend. the tube with larger curvature (Fig. 6b), while
Figures 5a–c show calculated maximum pres- SW deceleration was detected in the tube with
sure traces in the 2D channel at incident SW smaller curvature (Fig. 6a). These results corre-
velocities of 0.73D0 (a), 0.75D0 (b), and 1.03D0 spond well with the experimental findings.
(c). Due to planar shock interaction with the walls Figure 7 shows the predicted effect of compres-
of the U-bend, a transverse wave developed in the sion phase duration s in the primary SW on SDT
channel, which decayed at low incident SW veloc- in the setup of Fig. 1a. The value of s was defined
ity (Fig. 5a) and transformed to a detonation with as the time taken for the overpressure behind the
a single transverse wave at high incident SW SW to decrease by a factor of e with respect to its
velocities (Figs. 5b and c). In Figs. 5b and c, the value at the shock front. The value of s was varied
detonation structure is very similar, i.e., it does by changing the length of a high-pressure initia-
not depend on the way it is obtained. The detona- tion domain. Closed squares correspond to deto-
tion originated at a distance of about 1–2 tube nation initiation via SDT at a distance of up to
1.2 m behind the U-bend exit. Open squares corre-
spond to ‘‘no-go’’ conditions for detonation initi-
ation. Clearly, the SW with longer s are more
efficient for SDT in terms of the initial velocity.