High resolution numerical simulation of the structure of 2-D gaseous detonations

Two dimensional numerical simulation of the structure of gaseous detonation is investigated by utilizing the single step Arrhenius kinetic reaction mechanism in both high and low activation energy mixtures, characterized by their irregular and regular detonation structure, respectively. All the computations are performed on a small Beowulf cluster with six nodes. The dependency of the structure on the grid resolution is performed and it is found that, resolution of more than 300 cells per hrl is required to demonstrate the role of hydrodynamic instabilities, (KH and RM instabilities) in detonation propagation in irregular structures, while due to the absence of fine-scale structures, resolution of 50 cells per hrl, gives the physical structure of detonation with regular structures. Results show that the transverse waves in irregular structure are significantly stronger than the transverse wave in regular structure detonation, which can enhance the burning rate of the unburned pockets behind the shock front. Results for resolution of 600 cells per hrl illustrate that, in addition to the primary mode, the interaction of large vortices with the shock front provides secondary modes in the structure which leads to the irregularity of the structure in high activation energy mixture. In contrast with the results obtained for regular structure, which no unburned gas pockets and vortices observed behind the front, the results for irregular structure reveal that most portions of the gases, escape from shock compression and create large unburned gas pockets behind the both weak section of the Mach stem and the incident wave, which will burn eventually by the turbulent mixing due to the vortices associated with hydrodynamic instabilities. Therefore, the ignition mechanism in irregular structure is due to the both shock compression and by turbulent mixing associated with hydrodynamic instabilities, while the shock compression yields the ignition mechanism in regular structure detonation. (C) 2010 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.