Detonation Re-initiation behind an Aluminum Foam Plate in Stoichiometric Methane-oxygen Mixture

ABSTRACT

Porous materials can be used for accidental explosion prevention and suppression in process industries. In this study, an experimental study was conducted to study the effect of an aluminum foam plate on stoichiometric methane-oxygen detonation propagation behavior at different initial pressures (i.e., 10 kPa to 50 kPa). Experiments were carried out in a 4.4-m long, 48-mm diameter tube. Downstream of the foam plate, the detonation velocity was measured using even-spaced photodiodes, and the detonation structure evolution was recorded using the soot foil technique. The density of the aluminum foam was 1.1 g/cm³ and the thicknesses were 10 mm and 15 mm. Results demonstrate that behind the foam plate, the detonation fails first and re-initiates after a certain distance (re-initiation distance). At the end of the tube, the detonation velocity can be steady although the velocity fluctuation is significant downstream of the plate. The soot pattern indicates that the onset of detonation is achieved via the interaction between shock waves and wall, and fast turbulence mixing. For the case of the 10-mm foam plate, the single-headed mode can be observed. Generally, the re-initiation distance increases with the cell size. When the single-headed spin appears, the re-initiation distance is decreased notably.

KEYWORDS:

• Aluminum foam plate
• detonation velocity
• detonation re-initiation
• cellular structure

Additional information

Funding

This research was financially supported by the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation Grant under Project No. 2019TQ0310 and 2019M660154, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Project NO. 12002339, 51674229 and 51874267.