Study on inhomogeneous hydrogen–air mixture flame acceleration and deflagration-to-detonation transition

Abstract

This paper discusses the effect of obstacle spacing on flame acceleration (FA) and deflagration-to-detonation transition (DDT) in inhomogeneous hydrogen–air mixture using the OpenFOAM open-source code and large eddy simulation technology based on the unsteady compressible reacting flow Navier–Stokes equation and the detailed chemical reaction mechanism of 9 species and 21 steps. The results show that the obstacle spacing has a more significant impact on the rapid deflagration state, manifested as an inverse relationship between the flame propagation speed and the obstacle spacing due to the negative correlation between the interference intensity of obstacles to the flow within a unit channel length and the obstacle spacing. In addition, under all conditions considered in this paper, the main mechanisms of FA and DDT are the same. Further analysis reveals that the detonation initiation dynamics portrayed in this study seem more aligned with the mechanisms proposed by Liberman and akin to the shock wave amplification mechanism of coherent energy release models. As the obstacle spacing increases, the run-up distance and the acceleration time of supersonic flames and DDT also increase. This paper also observes that the flame structure during explosion flame propagation has typical self-similarity, and the turbulence level in the obstacle area is higher, resulting in a larger fractal dimension. During flame acceleration, there is a mode transition from the “thin reaction zone” to the “broken reaction zone.”