Detonation peninsula of different stoichiometric ammonia/hydrogen/air mixtures under engine-relevant conditions

Abstract

This study numerically investigates the detonation development of carbon-free fuels, namely ammonia and hydrogen (NH3 and H2), using one-dimensional (1D) simulations under the end-gas autoignitive conditions relevant to internal combustion (IC) engines. Five stoichiometric NH3/H2/air mixtures with different NH3/H2 blending ratios are studied. A 1D hot spot with varied lengths and temperature gradients is used to induce different ignition modes. The detonation peninsulas are quantitatively identified by two non-dimensional parameters, namely the resonance parameter, ξ, and the reactivity parameter, ε. Increasing the H2 blending ratio up to 80% results in a unique horn-shaped detonation peninsula, i.e., the magnitude of the upper and lower ξ limits, ξu,l, near the leftmost boundaries of the detonation peninsula of the rich-H2 mixtures becomes larger by an order of magnitude as compared to those of the lean-H2 mixtures. Such behavior is attributed primarily to the large heat diffusion of hydrogen, leading to rapid heat dissipation of the hot spot and the significantly decreased transient ξ over time, thus promoting detonation development. The analysis reveals that the characterization of detonation propensity in the rich-H2 mixtures needs to account for the fast heat diffusion of the initial hot spot, in which the initial magnitude of ξ is not representative of its detonability. As such, a correction factor, β, weighted by the ignition Damköhler number, is proposed to resolve the discrepancy of the ξu,l limits between different NH3/H2/air mixtures. With this correction, the transient magnitudes of ξ, ξt, prior to the main ignition are well predicted such that a unified shape of the detonation peninsula for different NH3/H2/air mixture compositions is achieved.