Detonation in gases

We review recent progress in gaseous detonation experiment, modeling, and simulation. We focus on the propagating detonation wave as a fundamental combustion process. The picture that is emerging is that although all propagating detonations are unstable, there is a wide range of behavior with one extreme being nearly laminar but unsteady periodic flow and the other chaotic instability with highly turbulent flow. We discuss the implications of this for detonation propagation and dynamic behavior such as diffraction, initiation, and quenching or failure. (C) 2009 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.