DDT in methane-air mixtures

Experimental results from a study on the critical condition for deflagration-to-detonation transition (DDT) in methane-air mixtures are presented. Experiments were carried out at 293 K and 1 atm using methane-air mixtures with methane concentrations ranging from 5.5 to 17% vol. The tests were performed in detonation tubes with inner-diameters of 174 mm and 520 mm. Detonation cell widths lambda were determined in the tests for a range of methane concentrations. The results of DDT tests indicate that for a tube cross-sectional area blockage ratio (BR) of 0.3 the critical condition for DDT can be characterized by the d/lambda = 1 criterion. However, for a BR = 0.6 the critical value d/lambda was significantly higher. The data also show that the critical condition for DDT can be described by L/lambda = 7, where L is the characteristic length-scale of the channel volume between orifice plates. This length-scale is defined by a grouping of the orifice plate dimensions (inner and outer-diameter) and plate spacing.