Chemical Condensation Wave Initiating Oxygen-Free Combustion and Detonation

Abstract

Abstract It is well known that the propagation of traditional combustion and detonation waves was determined by the branched chain reactions discovered by Academician N.N. Semenov. This article discusses a new type of detonation waves initiated by chemical condensation processes. Chemical condensation waves arise as a result of the heat released during the explosive condensation of a highly supersaturated carbon vapor formed as a result of the dissociation of the initial carbon-containing molecules behind the front of the initiating shock wave. Unlike traditional combustion and detonation waves, the mechanism of chemical condensation does not include branched chain reactions; nevertheless, the laws of propagation of detonation waves of condensation are clearly described by the Zel’dovich–Neumann–Döring theory.