Different modes of reaction front propagation in n-heptane/air mixture with concentration non-uniformity

According to the reactivity gradient theory of Zel'dovich, the non-uniformity in temperature or concentration can lead to detonation development under certain conditions. In the literature, there are many studies on detonation development caused by temperature gradient or hot spot. However, the modes of supersonic reaction front propagation and detonation development regime caused by concentration non-uniformity have not been investigated previously. In this study, one-dimensional simulations were conducted to investigate the transient autoignition and reaction front propagation processes in n-heptane/air mixture with concentration non-uniformity. With the increase of equivalence ratio gradient, three modes (supersonic autoignitive reaction front, developing detonation and subsonic reaction front) of reaction front propagation induced by concentration non-uniformity were identified. The effects of heat conduction and mass diffusion on these three modes were examined and it was demonstrated that molecular diffusion has little influence on the first two modes. The detonation development regime caused by concentration non-uniformity was reported in this paper. This regime was found to be similar to the one caused by temperature gradient. A non-dimensional parameter was proposed to characterize the lower limit of the detonation regime. Furthermore, the effects of initial temperature on the detonation development regime were examined. It was found that the detonation development regime becomes wider as the initial temperature decreases. The initial temperature was shown to only have great impact on the upper limit of the detonation development regime while it has little influence on the lower limit. The influence of initial temperature was explained using the volumetric energy density of the mixture.