Two aspects of detonation dynamics are addressed in this thesis by articles. The first part of the thesis investigates shock reflection phenomena believed to be responsible for enhancing reaction rates in detonations, namely Kelvin-Helmholtz instability and Mach stem bifurcation caused by forward jetting. Three papers are presented.
The first numerically investigates shock reflections from a wedge under detonation-like conditions. A state of the art solver of the Euler equations is used. The shock reflection configuration is shown to depend on solver type, wedge implementation, and resolution. The type of reflection (i.e. regular or irregular) is found to depend on corner geometry, even far from the corner, showing initial conditions can play important roles in shock reflections.
These complications are addressed with shock-resolved viscous simulations and a new initial condition: the triple point reflection. The numerical method is demonstrated in the second paper, and the presence of Kelvin-Helmholtz instability is investigated. Viscosity is found to play an important role in delaying the instability, which is found not to be a likely source of reaction acceleration on time scales commensurate with autoignition behind the Mach stem, but may become important on scales associated with the detonation cell.
Mach stem bifurcations are investigated experimentally and numerically in the third paper. Experimental shock reflections are performed from a free-slip boundary in gases with differing isentropic exponents. Bifurcations are found in experiments, viscous and inviscid simulations. Viscosity is found to delay bifurcations. Inviscid simulations are used to approximate the limits of Mach stem bifurcation in the phase space of Mach number, isentropic exponent, and reflection angle. A maximum isentropic exponent is found beyond which bifurcations do not occur, matching the irregular/regular boundary of the detonation cellular structure. Flow field instability is found in experiments at high Mach number and low isentropic exponent.
The second part of the thesis, comprised of one paper, investigates the dynamics of detonations with multiple thermicity peaks using Fickett's detonation analogue. Steady state analysis predicts multiple possible steady states, but only the fastest is singularity-free. Simulations show other solutions develop shock waves that eventually establish a detonation travelling at the fastest velocity allowed by the generalized Chapman-Jouguet criterion. Characteristic and linear stability analysis shows these shocks are found to arise due to instability at the sonic points.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/39530 |
| Date | 21 August 2019 |
| Creators | Lau-Chapdelaine, Sébastien She-Ming |
| Contributors | Radulescu, Matei |
| Publisher | Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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