A study of interaction of clouds of inert particles with detonation in gases

Interaction of a cloud of inert particles with a detonation in gaseous mixture is simulated and studied. The structure of both two- and three-dimensional detonations are modeled using a simplified chemical model with Arrhenius kinetics. Particle clouds are characterized based on the initial solid phase volume fraction () of the particle cloud and the initial cloud length (L ₀). The results show that the minimum average detonation speed decreases with increase in at fixed L ₀, and with an increase in L ₀ at fixed. The detonation propagation through inert particle clouds is observed to fall into three regimes based on and L ₀. In the first regime, the detonation speed is suppressed, but the reaction zone and leading shock remain coupled, and the triple points are nearly unaffected. In the second regime, the detonation is temporarily quenched but restored as the particle cloud moves away from the detonation front. In the third regime, the detonation is quenched permanently or at least does not get restored within the time available for the detonation propagation. It is also shown that the effects of inert particle clouds on the detonation front in three-dimensional studies are qualitatively similar to the results from two dimensional simulations. However, in post-detonation flow where transverse velocity components are important, simulations in three dimensions are necessary, especially to estimate particle dispersion.