Initiation of explosive mixtures having multi-sized structures

Theory of strong blast was used as the basis for the experimental method of determining of the energy of source which provides the initiation of combustible mixture. For mono-fuel mixtures the following parameters were experimentally determined at testing: the critical initiation energy of a cylindrical detonation wave in mixtures 2H2+O2 and C2H2+2.5O2 (exploding wire); the critical initiation energy of a spherical detonation in a mixture of C2H2+2.5O2 (electrical discharge). Similarly, for the double-fuel mixtures of acetylene - nitrous oxide - oxygen (having bifurcation cellular structures) the critical initiation energy of spherical wave was determined also. It was found that for the stoichiometric mixture on both fuel components the critical energy of mixture with the bifurcation structure was undervalued by several times in comparison with the value of the critical energy for the mono-fuel mixture, in which the cell size at a given pressure is determined by the large scale of bifurcation cells. This result shows the decrease of the critical energy with an increase of the number of "hot spots", which are the numerous areas of collision of the transverse waves of large and small scales in a mixture with bifurcation properties.