Sudden acceleration of flames in open channels driven by hydraulic resistance

Abstract

Hydrogen-air deflagrations with venting at the end of obstructed tubes are studied experimentally and numerically. A shockless transition to the so-called chocked regime of the flame propagation is reported. Mixtures with 13% vol. of hydrogen were ignited from the open end of the tube at the interface between fuel and the ambient air. Three venting ratios were selected, closed, 40% and 100%. In all cases the flame initially propagates without acceleration at a velocity close to the laminar flame speed. The flame configuration excludes most of conventionally acknowledged phenomena of the DDT, namely, volumetric explosions, igniting shock and shock waves interactions. However, after an induction period, of the order of 1 sec, the flame accelerates more than 100 times, within a period of 3-30 ms, until the steady-state choked regime is established. The mechanism of such rapid acceleration is investigated both numerically and analytically. A one dimensional reduced description was suggested and analyzed to model the process of the flame acceleration. The study of the over simplified model reveals that the hydrodynamic resistance of the tube causes sudden flame acceleration and governs initial stage of the DDT.