Flame acceleration, detonation limit and heat loss for hydrogen-oxygen mixture at cryogenic temperature of 77 K

Abstract

Experimental investigations have been conducted in hydrogen-oxygen mixtures with equivalence ratio of 1.5 at cryogenic temperature (77 K) and initial pressure (P0) from 0.2 to 0.5 atm. The pressure sensors and optical fibers are used to measure the overpressure and flame velocity, respectively. The precursor shock wave is formed by the combination of the 1st and 2nd shock waves. When flame catches up with the precursor shock wave, detonation occurs. Strong flame acceleration was observed in all tested conditions, which can be well characterized and predicted by the Zel'dovich number and expansion ratio. The stuttering and galloping modes were observed at 0.5 and 0.3 atm, respectively. With the decrease of the initial pressure to 0.20–0.25 atm, detonation could not occur, only the deflagration mode was observed. The stability of the mixture can be indicated by the parameter χ, and the improvement of stability of mixture will shorten the initial pressure range where the galloping mode occurs. The heat loss effect on detonation limit has subsequently been examined for the present experiments as well as those with equivalence ratio of 2.6 reported in our previous study [Shen, X. et al., Proceedings of the Combustion Institute 2022]. For equivalence ratio of 2.6, the heat loss is found to have dominant effect on the appearance of detonation limit. Its influence can be quantitatively characterized by critical ratio of heat loss to heat release. However, for equivalence ratio of 1.5, the heat loss effect is found to have only relatively small effect on detonation limit.