Evaluating the effect of ignition energy on gaseous hydrogen–oxygen detonations

Abstract

The effect of ignition energy on the cellular structure of hydrogen-oxygen and hydrogen-oxygen-argon detonations was investigated experimentally over a range of initial conditions. The increase in ignition energy resulted in increased detonation propagation velocities, leading to overdriven detonations for most of the reactive mixtures. The detonation cell width decreased for mixtures subjected to higher ignition energy. A substantial reduction in the detonation cell width was observed for mixtures at a lower initial pressure. The coefficient of variation of the measured detonation cell width decreased with ignition energy, indicating greater regularity and uniformity in cellular structure. The observed reduction in the cell width can be attributed to the propagation of an overdriven detonation in the reactive mixtures due to high ignition energy.