Numerical simulation of flame acceleration and deflagration to detonation transition in hydrogen-air mixture

A numerical approach has been developed to simulate flame acceleration and deflagration to detonation transition in hydrogen-air mixture. Fully compressible, multidimensional, transient, reactive Navier Stokes equations are solved with a chemical reaction mechanism which is tuned to simulate different stages of flame propagation and acceleration from a laminar flame to a turbulent flame and subsequent transition from deflagration to detonation. Since the numerical approach must simulate both deflagrations and detonations correctly, it is initially tested to verify the accuracy of the predicted flame temperature and velocity as well as detonation pressure, velocity and cell size. The model is then used to simulate flame acceleration (FA) and transition from deflagration to detonation (DDT) in a 2-D rectangular channel with 0.08 m height and 2 m length which is filled with obstacles to reproduce the experimental results of Teodorczyk et al. The simulations are carried out using two different initial ignition strengths to investigate the effects and the results are evaluated against the observations and measurements of Teodorczyk et al. Copyright (C) 2014, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.