On the nonlinear stability and detonability limit of a detonation wave for a model three-step chain-branching reaction

Abstract

The nonlinear stability of a pulsating detonation wave driven by a three-step chain-branching reaction is studied. The reaction model consists sequentially of a chain-initiation step and a chain-branching step, both governed by Arrhenius kinetics, followed by a temperature-independent chain-termination step. The model mimics the essential dynamics of a real chain-branching chemical system, but is sufficiently idealized that a theoretical analysis of the instability is possible. We introduce as a bifurcation parameter the chain-branching cross-over temperature (TB), which is the temperature at which the chain-branching and chain-termination rates are equal. In the steady detonation structure, this parameter controls the ratio of the chain-branching induction length to the length of the recombination zone. When TB is at the lower end of the range studied, the steady detonation structure, which is dominated by the temperature-independent recombination zone, is found to be stable. Increasing TB increases the length of the chain-branching induction region relative to the length of the recombination zone, and a critical value of TB is reached where the detonation becomes unstable, with the detonation shock pressure evolving as a single-mode low-frequency pulsating oscillation. This single-mode nonlinear oscillation becomes progressively less stable as TB is increased further, persisting as the long-term dynamical behaviour for a significant range of TB before eventually undergoing a period-doubling bifurcation to a two-mode oscillation. Further increases in TB lead to a chaotic behaviour, where the detonation shock pressure history consists of a sequence of substantive discontinuous jumps, followed by lower-amplitude continuous oscillations. Finally, for further increases in TB a detonability limit is reached, where during the early onset of the detonation instability, the detonation shock temperature drops below the chain-branching cross-over temperature causing the wave to quench.