Numerical research of effect of pre-detonator installment mode on detonation initiation characteristics

In order to obtain the installment mode of the pre-detonator which is conducive to initiate detonation wave in the main detonation tube, two-dimensional numerical simulation of the detonation initiation process with pre-detonator was carried out with CFD software. And five installment modes of the pre-detonator were simulated. Stoichiometric propane-air mixture was used as the fuel-oxidant of the pre-detonator and main detonation tube. The simulation results and their analysis indicated preliminarily that: (1) the detonation jet cannot initiate the propane-air mixture directly in the main detonation tube for the current physical models, but can initiate the main detonation tube through DDT strengthened by the jet collision with the tube wall; (2) when the pre-detonators were installed on both sides of the main detonation tube for the symmetric and orthogonal installment mode, the initiation distance and time were the shortest, followed by the parallel and reverse arrangement of pre-detonator; however, the parallel and forward arrangement of pre-detonator cannot initiate the propane-air mixture in the main detonation tube.