Propagation of hydrogen-air detonation in tube with obstacles

An experimental and computational study of flame propagation, acceleration and transition to detonation in stoichiometric hydrogen-air mixtures in 6 m long tube filled with obstacles located at different configurations was performed. The initial conditions of the hydrogen-air mixtures were 0.1 MPa and 293 K. Four different cases of obstacle blockage ratio (BR) 0.7, 0.6, 0.5 and 0.4 and three cases of obstacle spacing were used. The wave propagation was monitored by piezoelectric pressure transducers PCB. Pressure transducers were located at different positions along the channel to collect data concerning detonation propagation. Tested mixtures were ignited by a weak electric spark at one end of the tube. In order to support the experimental results we performed series of CFD simulations for the same conditions of hydrogen-air mixtures and the geometry of the tube. The simulation tool used in this study was a two-dimensional DETO2D code, dedicated to simulate the propagation of gaseous detonations in complex geometries.