AN INVESTIGATION OF THE BEHAVIOR OF A DETONATION WAVE IN A FLOWING COMBUSTIBLE MIXTURE

Abstract

The study of detonation waves in a flowing combustible mixture of gas could lead to a better understanding of combustion instability in rocket motors and to possible application to supersonic combustion. Apparatus was designed to measure the relative wave velocity and to photograph the wave profile as a fully developed detonation wave propagated against a flow of stoichiometric mixture of hydrogen-oxygen gases. The Mach number of the flowing gas was varied from 0.14 to 4. The subsonic flow results indicated that the absolute detonation wave velocity relative to the gas was independent of the speed of the flowing gas. But, the supersonic flow results indicated a strong wave which was contributed to the particular pressure profile in the tube during the supersonic flows. The schlieren photographs of the wave indicated propagation into the boundary layer and a convex curvature of the complete wave front was observed in the Mach 4 flow. Velocity measurements indicated that the detonation wave was steady but it is believed that retonation waves were observed in some experiments.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 1966
Accession Number
AD0642240

Entities

People

  • William W. Mckenna

Organizations

  • Air Force Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Air Force Facilities
  • Boundary Layer
  • Cameras
  • Combustion
  • Construction
  • Control Systems
  • Diagrams
  • Ignition
  • Ignition Systems
  • Inertial Navigation
  • Measurement
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Pressure Measurement
  • Schematic Diagrams
  • Standards
  • United States

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Combustion science or combustion engineering.
  • Fluid Mechanics and Fluid Dynamics.
  • Plasma Physics / Magnetohydrodynamics

Technology Areas

  • Hypersonics
  • Hypersonics - Hypersonic Flow