Gas-phase detonation propagation in mixture composition gradients.

The propagation of detonations through several fuel-air mixtures with spatially varying fuel concentrations is examined numerically. The detonations propagate through two-dimensional channels, inside of which the gradient of mixture composition is oriented normal to the direction of propagation. The simulations are performed using a two-component, single-step reaction model calibrated so that one-dimensional detonation properties of model low- and high-activation-energy mixtures are similar to those observed in a typical hydrocarbon-air mixture. In the low-activation-energy mixture, the reaction zone structure is complex, consisting of curved fuel-lean and fuel-rich detonations near the line of stoichiometry that transition to decoupled shocks and turbulent deflagrations near the channel walls where the mixture is extremely fuel-lean or fuel-rich. Reactants that are not consumed by the leading detonation combine downstream and burn in a diffusion flame. Detonation cells produced by the unstable reaction front vary in size across the channel, growing larger away from the line of stoichiometry. As the size of the channel decreases relative to the size of a detonation cell, the effect of the mixture composition gradient is lessened and cells of similar sizes form. In the high-activation-energy mixture, detonations propagate more slowly as the magnitude of the mixture composition gradient is increased and can be quenched in a large enough gradient.