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Abstract
A simple model of the initiation and propagation of gas phase detonations is developed to treat the dependence of detonation thresholds on initiator characteristics. The initiator is modeled as a supersonic spherical piston which imparts the initiating energy to the gas over a finite and variable space and time. The model is applied to the development of scaling laws for the important class of the relatively slow explosions common in accident scenarios. The results are verified by comparison to available experimental data and to detailed computations performed by numerical simulation of the full governing equations.