Supersonic Propagation Research Articles

Ground Motion Characteristics of Subshear and Supershear Ruptures in the Presence of Sediment Layers

Summary We investigate the impact of sediment layers on ground motion characteristics during subshear and supershear rupture growth. Our findings suggest that sediment layers may lead to local supershear propagation, affecting ground motion, especially in the fault parallel (FP) direction. In contrast to homogeneous material models, we find that in the presence of sediment layers, a larger fault normal (FN) compared to fault parallel (FP) particle velocity jump, reflects shear propagation at depth but does not rule out shallow supershear propagation. Conversely, a large fault parallel (FP) compared to fault normal (FN) particle velocity jump indicates supershear propagation at depth. In the presence of a shallow layer, we also uncover a non-monotonic behavior in the sediment’s influence on supershear transition and ground motion characteristics. During supershear propagation at depth we observe that sediment layers contribute to enhancing FP velocity pulses while minimally affecting the FN component. Furthermore, in the limit of global supershear propagation we identify local supersonic propagation within the sediment layers that significantly alters the velocity field around the rupture tip as observed on the free surface, creating both dilatational and shear Mach cones. In all our models with sediments we also find a significant enhancement in the fault vertical component of ground velocity. This could have particular implications for hazard assessments, such as in applications related to linear infrastructure, or a higher propensity to tsunami wave generation. Our research unravels the importance of considering heterogeneous subsurface material distribution in our physical models as they can have drastic implications on earthquake source physics.

Nonlinear wave propagation in homogenized strain gradient 1D and 2D lattice materials: Applications to hexagonal and triangular networks

AbstractThis work aims to analyze the propagation of fully nonlinear waves, encompassing shear, extension, and bending deformation modes, within homogenized periodic nonlinear hexagonal and triangular networks, successively considering 1D and 2D situations. The wave analysis is conducted from the expression of the effective strain energy density of periodic hexagonal and triangular lattices in the nonlinear regime by a continualization of the discrete lattice equations, considering all forms of energy. We incorporate strain gradient effects into the continuous model to account for the wave‐dispersive nature. The resulting second‐gradient nonlinear continuum exhibits subsonic and supersonic propagation modes. We first examine in a 1D situation the dynamical response of the hexagonal and triangular lattices, considering varying levels of nonlinearity quantified by a single scalar valued parameter. We further evaluate the impact of a fully nonlinear analysis compared to an analysis solely based on the shear energy, regarding both supersonic and subsonic modes. The nonlinear wave propagation analysis is then extended to a 2D situation for the same two lattices. It is shown that the longitudinal mode exhibits a higher frequency at a low degree of nonlinearity; however, as the degree of nonlinearity increases, the shear mode surpasses the longitudinal mode in terms of frequency. As the wavenumber increases, the nonlinearity has a lesser impact on the frequency behavior, and the phase velocity is more influenced by other factors, such as the second gradient contributions of the effective constitutive law. Such a behavior indicates a transition from a highly nonlinear behavior at lower wave numbers to a more linear behavior at higher wave numbers.

Numerical investigation on turbulent flame jet characteristics of a pre-chamber fueled with CH4/O2 and CH4/NH3/O2 mixture under different initial pressures

Ammonia is a very potential carbon-free alternative fuel with extremely low reactivity. The application of ammonia in internal combustion engines faces the risks of ignition failure, low burning rate, and poor combustion stability. Pre-chamber turbulent jet ignition (TJI), which can provide much more ignition energy, is a promising method to ignite ammonia fuel. However, the transient propagation process of pre-chamber jet flame has not been fully investigated yet. In this paper, the propagation characteristic of methane jet flame was numerically studied based on a constant volume combustion system. The supersonic jet flame propagation and Mach disk phenomenon were further analyzed with numerical methods. And the propagation characteristic of methane/ammonia mixed jet flame was investigated. According to the results, the formation and propagation process of methane jet flame has different characteristics at different stages. In High-speed development stage (Stage II) and Low-speed oscillation development stage (Stage III), the penetration distance of flame jet tip is almost proportional to the penetration time. However, the penetration speed of the two stages is significantly different. The change trend of the jet velocity at the outlet of orifice hole can also be divided into four stages: slow increasing, rapid increasing, gradual decreasing, and periodic oscillation. The periodic oscillation of the jet tip velocity and the jet velocity at the outlet of orifice hole is caused by the effect of forward and reverse shock waves. The calculation results of CH4/NH3/O2 mixture jet flame show that the addition of ammonia has significant effects on the flame propagation process in PC, the thermodynamic state of PC, and the propagation characteristics of jet flame. With the increase of ammonia proportion, the maximum pressure of PC gradually decreases and the pressure rise rate slows down. Meanwhile, the two-stage (the high-speed development stage and the low-speed development stage) characteristic of jet propagation process gradually disappears. And the addition of ammonia is more likely to destroy the two-stage characteristic under low initial pressure.

A linear decoupled physical-property-preserving difference method for fractional-order generalized Zakharov system

In this paper, an efficient physical-property-preserving algorithm for the space fractional-order generalized Zakharov system is proposed and analyzed. Firstly, the space fractional-order generalized Zakharov system is reformulated as an equivalent system of equations by introducing the auxiliary equation. Then the spatial fourth-order physical-property-preserving linearly implicit difference scheme is developed for the transformed system. Subsequently, with the aid of the cut-off function and discrete energy analysis method, the underlying scheme are proven to be with the optimal order of O(Δt2+h4) in discrete L∞ and L2 norms. The main feature of the new scheme is physical-property-preserving, linearly decoupled and easy to be applied in parallel computing, especially in long time simulations and large-scale problems. At last, ample numerical results are exhibited to substantiate the efficiency and preservation properties of our scheme, and investigate the dynamic behaviors of the collision of different solitary waves with subsonic and supersonic propagation speeds, respectively.

Extensive characterization of Marshak waves observed at the LIL laser facility

We detail results of an experiment performed at the Ligne d'Intégration Laser facility aimed at studying supersonic and diffusive radiation front propagation in low-density SiO2 aerogel (20 and 40 mg/cm3) enclosed in a gold tube, driven by thermal emission from a laser-heated spherical gold cavity. The evolution of the front is studied continuously by measuring its self-emission with a 1D (one-dimensional) time-resolved soft x-ray imager. Measurement is performed along (through a 200-μm-wide observation slit) and at the exit of the tube giving access to the dynamics and the curvature of the front. Experimental results are then compared successfully to results from the 3D (three-dimensional) radiation hydrodynamics code TROLL, which shows that if continuous tracking of the front position is accessible with this experimental scheme, measurement of its maximum radiation temperature is on the contrary affected by radiation closure of the observation slit. 3D simulations also indicate that this effect can even be worsened if one includes pointing errors of the x-ray imager. Radiation temperature along the tube was then inferred by combining results from the imager to a wall shock breakout time measurement using a velocity interferometer system for any reflector and results from a broadband x-ray spectrometer used to determine the temperature at the exit of the tube. A decrease in the radiation temperature along the tube is observed, the decrease being more important for the higher SiO2 aerogel density.

Numerical Investigation on Detonation Initiation and Propagation with a Symmetric-Jet in Supersonic Combustible Gas

In this study, supersonic gaseous detonation initiation and propagation by single- and symmetric-jets are compared, and the effects of symmetric-jets of different intensities on the detonation are further investigated to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the initiation mechanism of hot jet in supersonic mixtures. The two-dimensional reactive Navier–Stokes equations, together with a one-step Arrhenius chemistry model, are adopted to analyze the flow field structure. The results show that the bow shocks induced by symmetric-jets interacting with each other will achieve local detonation combustion. Influenced by the unstable shear layer behind the triple point, a large-scale vortex shedding is formed in the flow field, thus promoting the consumption of the unburned region. By comparing with the single-jet, it is found that the dual-jet initiation method can shorten the distance to complete initiation, but has little effect on the detonation overdrive degree. In addition, a study of the impact of jet size parameters on the symmetric-jet initiation further revealed that there is a critical value, above which the ignition decreases rapidly which is a significant advantage over single-jet. However, below this threshold, detonation initiation will rely on the energy generated by the collision of Mach stems formed at the walls, resulting in a slower ignition rate compared to a single-jet. Therefore, the use of the appropriate jet strength when using a symmetric-jet will result in a more desirable ignition velocity and a shorter distance to achieve detonation.

Investigation on anti-penetration capability of water filled aluminum alloy cell structure to the shaped charge jet

Passive protective armor is reliable and cheap, and is favored by many armored weapons and equipment. However, reports on metal-liquid composite armor are not sufficient and systematic. Based on the shaped charge jet (SCJ), the anti-penetration capabilities of water filled aluminum alloy cell structure were studied. The hourglass cell structure (HCS) was designed according to the shock wave propagation characteristics in liquid, and the expansion-convergence cell structure (E-CCS) was derived. Based on the virtual origin theory, the residual tip velocity of jet after SCJ penetrated the cell structure was calculated. According to the theory of supersonic disturbance propagation, the Mach cone half angle of SCJ shock wave propagation in liquid was defined and corrected. The propagation and reflection behavior of shock wave were discussed to analysis the radial convergence of liquid. Via the Van Leer Arbitrary Lagrangian Euler finite element simulation model verified by experiments, the simulation studies of SCJ penetrated the circular cell structure (CCS), HCS, E-CCS and convergence/expansion multi-cell structure were performed. The results show that HCS has better effect of interfering with SCJ than that of CCS and E-CCS. An important discovery is that when the liquid composite multi-cell structure is penetrated by SCJ, the attacked cell will not affect other cells due to the shock wave has been trapped in a single cell.

Supersonic wave propagation in heterogeneous solids and the evolution of energy distribution

Dynamic homogenization of heterogeneous materials has received a lot of attention recently, due to the fact that it can avoid expensive direct simulations with high space-time resolution. In this paper, the applicability of effective homogenous media on some peculiar dynamic phenomena is discussed. Longitudinal wave velocity has been believed to be the upper limit of mechanical signal speeds in a homogenous elastic solid according to the classical elasticity theory. However, for heterogeneous materials, we demonstrate numerically and theoretically that if the wave impedances of the constituent phases are not equal, there must be the supersonic phenomenon such that some wave may propagate faster than the longitudinal wave in the effective homogenous medium. Especially, if two materials with the same longitudinal wave velocity are used to compose a heterogeneous medium, the effective longitudinal wave speed will almost definitely be lower than its local counterpart. We also investigate the evolution of energy distribution over time when the wave propagates through heterogeneous media with various gradients, which indicates, interestingly, that the smoother the change in wave impedances of the heterogeneous medium, the more energy in “before-wave” region and the less energy in “after-wave” region. The corresponding dispersion curves and group speed curves also show dramatic change for heterogeneous media with different smoothness, which can partially explain but not quantitively predict these phenomena. We attempt to develop an effective medium model to reproduce the energy evolution but fail. All these findings pose a big challenge to the proper establishment of dynamic homogenization models.

Influence of perforated plate thickness on supersonic combustion wave propagation mechanism in a stoichiometric H2-O2 mixture

The behaviors of a supersonic combustion wave through the perforated plate were studied based on velocity and cellular structures. The perforated plate with the thicknesses of Δ = 40 mm, 70 mm, and 100 mm was placed perpendicular to the direction of combustion wave propagation. Stoichiometric hydrogen-oxygen was used in all tests with initial pressure ranging from 11 kPa to 55 kPa. Soot foils were employed to record the triple-point trajectory of a detonation through the perforated plate. Pressure transducers were used to measure the shock time-of-arrival, based on which average velocity was derived. It was found that the fast flame, entering the perforated plate, either maintains fast flame or accelerates to detonation. For CJ detonation, the diffraction kills the detonation directly, and the decoupled detonation may re-initiate or not, which is up to the initial pressure and the geometry of the perforated plate. However, for an overdriven detonation, it can transmit the perforated plate successfully with no failure. The critical condition for a detonation go or no go requires d/λ (d is the hole diameter and λ is the cell size) to be larger than 2.29.

Spectroscopic Detection of Alfvénic Waves in the Chromosphere of Sunspot Regions

Abstract Transverse magnetohydrodynamic waves often called Alfvénic (or kink) waves have been often theoretically put forward to solve the outstanding problems of the solar corona like coronal heating, solar wind acceleration, and chemical abundance enhancement. Here we report the first spectroscopic detection of Alfvénic waves around a sunspot at chromospheric heights. By analyzing the spectra of the Hα line and Ca ii 854.2 nm line, we determined line-of-sight velocity and temperature as functions of position and time. As a result, we identified transverse magnetohydrodynamic waves pervading the superpenumbral fibrils. These waves are characterized by the periods of 2.5 to 4.5 minutes, and the propagation direction parallel to the fibrils, the supersonic propagation speeds of 45 to 145 km s−1, and the close association with umbral oscillations and running penumbral waves in sunspots. Our results support the notion that the chromosphere around sunspots abounds with Alfvénic waves excited by the mode conversion of the upward-propagating slow magnetoacoustic waves.

Mathematical models of supersonic and intersonic crack propagation in linear elastodynamics

This paper presents mathematical models of supersonic and intersonic crack propagation exhibiting Mach type of shock wave patterns that closely resemble the growing body of experimental and computational evidence reported in recent years. The models are developed in the form of weak discontinuous solutions of the equations of motion for isotropic linear elasticity in two dimensions. Instead of the classical second order elastodynamics equations in terms of the displacement field, equivalent first order equations in terms of the evolution of velocity and displacement gradient fields are used together with their associated jump conditions across solution discontinuities. The paper postulates supersonic and intersonic steady-state crack propagation solutions consisting of regions of constant deformation and velocity separated by pressure and shear shock waves converging at the crack tip and obtains the necessary requirements for their existence. It shows that such mathematical solutions exist for significant ranges of material properties both in plane stress and plane strain. Both mode I and mode II fracture configurations are considered. In line with the linear elasticity theory used, the solutions obtained satisfy exact energy conservation, which implies that strain energy in the unfractured material is converted in its entirety into kinetic energy as the crack propagates. This neglects dissipation phenomena both in the material and in the creation of the new crack surface. This leads to the conclusion that fast crack propagation beyond the classical limit of the Rayleigh wave speed is a phenomenon dominated by the transfer of strain energy into kinetic energy rather than by the transfer into surface energy, which is the basis of Griffiths theory.

Оценка амплитуды давления на преграду продуктов недосжатой уходящей детонационной волны структурированного заряда

The study relies on the concepts of various mechanisms of explosives decomposition at supersonic propagation of the under-compressed detonation reaction zones, and examines the structured charges explosion effect on compressible obstacles. In such charges, artificially or naturally, there can appear rod-like formations highly capable of detonation, penetrating the charge and ensuring the propagation of the complete heat release zone at a speed greater than the normal, and the ideal detonation speed of a monodisperse charge is of the same density. We introduce a simple algebraic model of the explosive process of structured charges, the process proceeding in the form of under-compressed detonation. We obtained algebraic expressions that make it possible to compare the peak pressures at the obstacles depending on the direction of detonation propagation relative to the obstacle and on the mode of detonation, i.e. whether it is normal or “under-compressed”.

Beyond spontaneous emission: Giant atom bounded in the continuum

The quantum coupling of individual superconducting qubits to microwave photons leads to remarkable experimental opportunities. Here we consider the phononic case where the qubit is coupled to an electromagnetic surface acoustic wave antenna that enables supersonic propagation of the qubit oscillations. This can be considered as a giant atom that is many phonon wavelengths long. We study an exactly solvable toy model that captures these effects, and find that this non-Markovian giant atom has a suppressed relaxation, as well as an effective vacuum coupling between a qubit excitation and a localized wave packet of sound, even in the absence of a cavity for the sound waves. Finally, we consider practical implementations of these ideas in current surface acoustic wave devices.

Investigation of supersonic heat-conductivity hyperbolic waves in radiative ablation flows.

We carry out a numerical investigation of three-dimensional linear perturbations in a self-similar ablation wave in slab symmetry, representative of the shock transit phase of a pellet implosion in inertial confinement fusion (ICF). The physics of ablation is modeled by the equation of gas dynamics with a nonlinear heat conduction as an approximation for radiation transport. Linear perturbation responses of the flow, its external surface, and shock-wave front, when excited by external pressure or heat-flux perturbation pulses, are computed by fully taking into account the flow compressibility, nonuniformity, and unsteadiness. These responses show the effective propagation, at supersonic speeds, of perturbations from the flow external surface through the whole conduction region of the ablation wave, beyond its Chapman-Jouguet point, and up to the ablation front, after the birth of the ablation wave. This supersonic forward propagation of perturbations is evidenced by means of a set of appropriate pseudocharacteristic variables and is analyzed to be associated to the "heat-conductivity" waves previously identified by Clarisse etal. [J. Fluid Mech. 848, 219 (2018)JFLSA70022-112010.1017/jfm.2018.343]. Such heat-conductivity linear waves are found to prevail over heat diffusion as a feedthrough mechanism [Aglitskiy et al., Philos. Trans. R. Soc. A 368, 1739 (2010)PTRMAD1364-503X10.1098/rsta.2009.0131] for perturbations of longitudinal characteristic lengths of the order of-or larger than-the conduction region size, and long transverse wavelengths with respect to this region size, and over time scales shorter to much shorter than the shock transit phase duration. This mechanism, which results from the dependency of the heat conductivity on temperature and density in conjunction with a flow temperature stratification, is expected to occur for other types of nonlinear heat conductions-e.g., electron heat conduction-as well as to be efficient at transmitting large scale perturbations from the surrounding of an ICF pellet to its inner compressed core at later times of its implosion. Besides, the proposed set of pseudocharacteristic variables are recommended for analyzing perturbation dynamics in an ablation flow as it furnishes additional propagation information over the fundamental linear modes of fluid dynamics [Kovásznay, J. Aeronautic. Sci. 20, 657 (1953)1936-995610.2514/8.2793], especially in the flow conduction region.

Self-focusing of UV radiation in 1 mm scale plasma in a deep ablative crater produced by 100 ns, 1 GW KrF laser pulse in the context of ICF

Experiments at the GARPUN KrF laser facility and 2D simulations using the NUTCY code were performed to study the irradiation of metal and polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) targets by 100 ns UV pulses at intensities up to 5 × 1012 W cm−2. In both targets, a deep crater of length 1 mm was produced owing to the 2D geometry of the supersonic propagation of the ablation front in condensed matter that was pushed sideways by a conical shock wave. Small-scale filamentation of the laser beam caused by thermal self-focusing of radiation in the crater-confined plasma was evidenced by the presence of a microcrater relief on the bottom of the main crater. In translucent PMMA, with a penetration depth for UV light of several hundred micrometers, a long narrow channel of length 1 mm and diameter 30 μm was observed emerging from the crater vertex. Similar channels with a length-to-diameter aspect ratio of ∼1000 were produced by a repeated-pulse KrF laser in PMMA and fused silica glass at an intensity of ∼109 W cm−2. This channel formation is attributed to the effects of radiation self-focusing in the plasma and Kerr self-focusing in a partially transparent target material after shallow-angle reflection by the crater wall. Experimental modeling of the initial stage of inertial confinement fusion-scale direct-drive KrF laser interaction with subcritical coronal plasmas from spherical and cone-type targets using crater-confined plasmas seems to be feasible with increased laser intensity above 1014 W cm−2.

Numerical investigation of flame propagation and performance of obstructed pulse detonation engine with variation of hydrogen and air

Pulse detonation engine is a new technique of supersonic wave propagation and stands for high impulsive thrust. The objective of the present investigation is to analyze the detonation wave characteristic of a hydrogen–air mixture in the pulse detonation engine (PDE) having obstacles of blockage ratio 0.5. The three-dimensional reactive Navier–Stokes equations with realizable k − ɛ turbulence model are used to simulate the propagation of combustion flame. The reaction rate of excess hydrogen and excess air is modeled by reduced single-step chemical reaction model and simulated using ANSYS software FLUENT 14.0 code. The simulation results of the shock wave overpressure, deflagration-to-detonation transition run-up distance of different flames and flame velocities are reported at initial boundary condition of 0.1 MPa pressure and 293 K temperature. It has been observed that the obstacles create turbulence in the propagating flame and form strong Mach stems of high temperature, resulting in reduction in accelerated flame run-up length. However, the normalized detonation flame run-up distance increases as the mass of fuel increases in the mixture. Thus, the performance of PDE combustor was observed 4.46% at high overpressure generated by excess fuel (ϕ = 1.3).

Surface acoustic wave modes in two-dimensional shallow void inclusion phononic crystals on GaAs

The possibility to control supersonic acoustic wave propagation is intriguing, but when modeling phononic crystal devices, supersonic surface acoustic waves are mired by radiative attenuation and, hence, eschewed in many device designs. In this paper, we study supersonic surface acoustic wave modes in shallow hole phononic crystals computationally with respect to the three bulk wave sound barriers of cubic (001) GaAs. From a first principles modeling approach of linear elasticity, the finite element method, and with the aid of characterization parameters for systematic modal categorization, detailed nuances are observed for supersonic surface waves propagating along the [110]-direction of GaAs with a periodically patterned surface. Modes of interest are distinguished by possessing both strain energy and squared polarization ratios above defined thresholds. The square array of shallow inclusions imparts a metamaterial surface layer effect that results in marked changes in the dispersion, the bulk wave hybridization, and the modal interactions of the surface modes in the Γ-X direction of the phononic crystal, which are characterized by their modal profiles and attenuation via bulk wave radiation. From these findings, we propose an extended sound cone concept to accommodate supersonic surface acoustic waves with low attenuation. Furthermore, at frequencies above the shear vertical bulk dispersion line, well-bounded surface acoustic wave modes are revealed, and the phenomenon of these supersonic modes with limited bulk wave coupling is explored. From these detailed band structures, the systematic method of mode characterization reveals deeper insights into modes that exist in shallow phononic crystals on cubic GaAs.

Low-Gas Detonation in Low-Density Mechanically Activated Powder Mixtures

We have analyzed experimental data on supersonic self-sustained propagation of an energy-release wave in low-density mechanically activated mixtures. Various mechanisms that can be responsible for this process have been investigated, and the mechanism for detonation-like propagation of reaction in powder mixtures has been proposed. It is shown that under certain conditions, this process possesses all features of detonation and must be treated as a variety of detonation. It is demonstrated that this type of detonation basically differs from classical “ideal” detonation: instead of a shock wave, a compaction wave propagates in a powder mixture, in which powder compaction and not compression of particle material occurs due to mutual displacement of particles. In this case, a chemical reaction is initiated due to mutual friction of oxidizer and fuel particles in the powder compaction wave.

Малогазовая детонация в низкоплотных механоактивированных порошковых смесях

Experimental data on supersonic self-sustaining propagation of the energy release wave in low-density mechanically activated powder mixtures are analyzed. Various mechanisms that may be responsible for this process are analyzed, and a mechanism for the detonation-like propagation of the reaction in powder mixtures is proposed. It is shown that under certain conditions this process has all the signs of detonation and should be recognized as one of the types of detonation. It is shown that this type of detonation is fundamentally different from the classical "ideal" detonation, for example, in gases: instead of a shock wave, a compaction wave propagates through the powder mixture, in which there is basically no compression of the particle material, but powder compaction occurs due to the mutual rearrangement of particles. In this case, the initiation of a chemical reaction occurs due to the mutual friction of the oxidizer and fuel particles in the powder compaction wave.

Symmetric sonic crystals: From asymmetric echoes to supersonic speeds

Parity-time symmetric structures based on balanced distributions of gain and loss have attracted significant attention in acoustic metamaterial research since they allow one to sculpture the flow of sound waves in complete new ways. We compute complex Bloch waves in fluidic non-Hermitian sonic crystals and demonstrate how band coalescence can lead to exceptionally large group velocities permitting supersonic wave propagation in symmetric slabs. Further, by controlling the degree of non-hermiticity in such systems, we found that asymmetrically reflected pulses can be readily amplitude-tuned, which might find potential use in echocardiography, sonar and echo suppressors.