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The dynamics of frontal and transverse shocks in gaseous detonation waves is a complex phenomenon bringing many difficulties to both numerical and experimental research. Advanced laser-optical visualization of detonation structure may provide certain information of its reactive front, but the corresponding lead shock needs to be reconstructed building the complete flow field. Using the Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) approach, we propose in this study a shock front reconstruction method which can predict evolution of the lead shock wavefront from the state of the reactive front. The method is verified through the numerical results of one- and two-dimensional unstable detonations based on the reactive Euler equations with a one-step irreversible chemical reaction model. Results show that the accuracy of the proposed method depends on the activation energy of the reactive mixture, which influences prominently the cellular detonation instability and hence, the distortion of the lead shock surface. To select the input variables for training and evaluate their influence on the effectiveness of the proposed method, five groups, one with six variables and the other with four variables, are tested and analyzed in the MLP model. The trained MLP is tested in the cases with different activation energies, demonstrates the inspiring generalization capability. This paper offers a universal framework for predicting detonation frontal evolution and provides a novel way to interpret numerical and experimental results of detonation waves., Comment: 22 pages, 11 figures and 3 tables

Two-dimensional, meso-resolved numerical simulations are performed to investigate the complete shock-to-detonation transition (SDT) process in a mixture of liquid nitromethane (NM) and air-filled, circular cavities. The shock-induced initiation behaviors resulting from the cases with neat NM, NM with an array of regularly spaced cavities, and NM with randomly distributed cavities are examined. For the case with randomly distributed cavities, hundreds of cavities are explicitly resolved in the simulations using a diffuse-interface approach to treat two immiscible fluids and GPU-enabled parallel computing. Without invoking any empirically calibrated, phenomenological models, the reaction rate in the simulations is governed by Arrhenius kinetics. For the cases with neat NM, the resulting SDT process features a superdetonation that evolves from a thermal explosion after a delay following the passage of the incident shock wave and eventually catches up with the leading shock front. For the cases wherein mesoscale heterogeneities are explicitly considered, a gradual SDT process is captured. These two distinct initiation behaviors for neat NM and heterogeneous NM mixtures agree with experimental findings. Via examining the global reaction rate of the mixture, a unique time scale characterizing the SDT process, i.e., the overtake time, is measured for each simulation. For an input shock pressure less than approximately $9.4~\mathrm{GPa}$, the overtake time resulting from a heterogeneous mixture is shorter than that for neat NM. This sensitizing effect is more pronounced for lower input shock pressures. A random distribution of cavities is found to be more effective in enhancing the SDT process than a regular array of cavities. Statistical analysis on the meso-resolved simulation data provides more insights into the mechanism of energy release underlying the SDT process., Comment: 23 pages, 17 figures

Detonation propagation in a compressible medium wherein the energy release has been made spatially inhomogeneous is examined via numerical simulation. The inhomogeneity is introduced via step functions in the reaction progress variable, with the local value of energy release correspondingly increased so as to maintain the same average energy density in the medium, and thus a constant Chapman Jouguet (CJ) detonation velocity. A one-step Arrhenius rate governs the rate of energy release in the reactive zones. The resulting dynamics of a detonation propagating in such systems with one-dimensional layers and two-dimensional squares are simulated using a Godunov-type finite-volume scheme. The resulting wave dynamics are analyzed by computing the average wave velocity and one-dimensional averaged wave structure. In the case of sufficiently inhomogeneous media wherein the spacing between reactive zones is greater than the inherent reaction zone length, average wave speeds significantly greater than the corresponding CJ speed of the homogenized medium are obtained. If the shock transit time between reactive zones is less than the reaction time scale, then the classical CJ detonation velocity is recovered. The spatio-temporal averaged structure of the waves in these systems is analyzed via a Favre averaging technique, with terms associated with the thermal and mechanical fluctuations being explicitly computed. The analysis of the averaged wave structure identifies the super-CJ detonations as weak detonations owing to the existence of mechanical non-equilibrium at the effective sonic point embedded within the wave structure. The correspondence of the super-CJ behavior identified in this study with real detonation phenomena that may be observed in experiments is discussed.

The video shows the flow dynamics within inner and outer regions of a vortex core. The observed phenomena mimic a transport process occurring within the Antarctic vortex. The video shows two distinct regions: a strongly mixed core and broad ring of weakly mixed region extending out the vortex core boundaries. The two regions are separated by a thin layer that isolates the weakly and strongly mixed regions; this thin layer behaves as barrier to the mixing of the two regions. The video shows that the barriers deplete when a swirl of the vortex core increases and the vortex core espouses a triangular pattern., Comment: 62nd Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics, Fluid Dynamics Video