Effect of an Xe additive on the degree of translational nonequilibrium of an He-O2-H2 mixture in a shock wave front

Abstract

Computer simulations of the experimentally observed detonation threshold shift upon adding small amounts of Xe with the use of the direct simulation Monte Carlo method once again confirmed that this effect is associated with a substantial increase in the degree of translational nonequilibrium in the shock wave front. It was demonstrated that, when the presence of hydrogen in the mixture is taken into account, the calculated degree of translational nonequilibrium becomes higher. In addition, the effect of Xe was observed to grow stronger as the Xe concentration was decreased from 0.5 to 0.25%.