Detonation initiation by compressible turbulence thermodynamic fluctuations

Abstract

Theory and computations have established that thermodynamic gradients created by hot spots in reactive gas mixtures can lead to spontaneous detonation initiation. However, the current laminar theory of the temperature-gradient mechanism for detonation initiation is restricted to idealized physical configurations. Thus, it only predicts conditions for the onset of detonations in quiescent gases, where an isolated hot spot is formed on a timescale shorter than the chemical and acoustic timescales of the gas. In this work, we extend the laminar temperature-gradient mechanism into a statistical model for predicting the detonability of an autoignitive gas experiencing compressible isotropic turbulence fluctuations. Compressible turbulence forms non-monotonic temperature fields with tightly-spaced local minima and maxima that evolve over a range of timescales, including those much larger than chemical and acoustic timescales. We examine the utility of the adapted statistical model through direct numerical simulations of compressible isotropic turbulence in premixed hydrogen-air reactants for a range of conditions. We find strong, but not conclusive, evidence that the model can predict the degree of detonability in an autoignitive gas due to turbulence-induced thermodynamic gradients.