Shock Waves (2001) 11: 5371

DDT and detonation waves in dust-air mixtures

F. Zhang1 , H. Gr onig2 , A. van de Ven2
1 2

Defence Research Establishment Sueld, BO 4000 Stn Main, Medicine Hat, Alberta T1A 8K6, Canada Shock Wave Laboratory, RWTH Aachen, Templergraben 55, 52056 Aachen, Germany Received 11 February 2000 / Accepted 1 August 2000 Abstract. This paper summarizes the studies of DDT and stable detonation waves in dust-air mixtures at the Stosswellenlabor of RWTH Aachen. The DDT process and propagation mechanism for stable heterogeneous dust detonations in air are essentially the same as in the oxygen environment studied previously. The dust DDT process in tubes is composed of a reaction compression stage followed by a reaction shock stage as the pre-detonation process. The transverse waves that couple the shock wave and the chemical energy release are responsible for the propagation of a stable dust-air detonation. However, the transverse wave spacing of dust-air mixtures is much larger. Therefore, DDT and propagation of a stable detonation in most industrial and agricultural, combustible dust-air mixtures require a tube that has a large diameter between 0.1 m and 1 m and a sucient length-diameter ratio beyond 100, when an appropriately strong initiation energy is used. Two dust detonation tubes, 0.14 m and 0.3 m in diameter, were used for observation of the above-mentioned results in cornstarch, anthraquinone and aluminum dust suspended in air. Smoked-foil technique was also used to measure the cellular structure of dust detonations in the 0.3 m detonation tube. Key words: Detonations, DDT, Heterogeneous explosions, Multiphase ow, Organic dust explosions, Aluminum dust explosions

1 Introduction
Organic or metallic ne particles suspended in oxygen or air form an explosive dust mixture. A dust mixture can sustain a deagration that may lead to a self-sustained detonation wave in tubes of sucient diameter and length if the initiation energy is large enough. This was, however, by no means clear since in numerous studies the tubes had a too small hydraulic diameter and were too short (Kauman et al. 1984, Peraldi and Veyssiere 1986, Wolanski 1991, Li et al. 1993, Gr onig 1997). The detonation velocities determined in these experiments were usually 20 to 30% less than those predicted by the equilibrium Chapman-Jouguet theory. The observed transition from deagration to detonation mainly exhibited a smooth acceleration to the steady state without a violent onset of detonation accompanied by a retonation wave. The former phenomenon was termed quasi-detonation by Lee (1988). On the other hand, in a tube 0.6 m in diameter and 42 m in length, Gardner et al. (1986) observed the transition to detonation in a coal dust-air mixture at the end of the tube, where the velocity of the combustion wave reached 2850 m/s and a peak pressure was measured of 81.5 bar. However, the tube, with a length-diameter ratio
Correspondence to : Hans Gr onig (e-mail: groe@swl.rwth-aachen.de)

of 70, was still too short to demonstrate the achievement of a self-sustained detonation wave. The conclusive evidence of the existence of a selfsustained detonation wave in dust mixtures was established through detailed observations of the transverse wave structure of the detonation wave front (Zhang and Gr onig 1991a, 1992, Zhang et al. 1992). Their results are briey summarized in the following three aspects. 1. The propagation mechanism of a self-sustained dust detonation wave is predominated by the transverse wave structure that provides the coupling between the shock wave and the chemical reaction. However, the transverse wave spacing is much larger than that of a homogeneous gas detonation owing to the additional time scales, inherent in momentum, heat and mass transfer processes between the solid particles and the oxidizing gas environment. Consequently, the propagation of a self-sustained dust detonation wave requires a large tube diameter and a sucient tube length. In a tube with 0.14 m inner diameter and 17.4 m test section length (i.e., a length-diameter ratio of 124), a single-head spinning detonation mode and a two-head detonation mode were observed in 10 m cornstarch powder suspended in oxygen, which exhibits a transverse wave spacing of d 0.4 m, 27 times that of a stoichiometric hydrogen-air detonation wave.

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F. Zhang, H. Gr onig, A. van de Ven: Dust-air DDT and detonation

2. Owing to the insensitivity of the heterogeneous dust mixtures, transition from deagration to detonation (DDT) in tubes requires a strong initiation energy and a large length-diameter ratio. In general, a dust DDT process can be divided into a slow reaction compression stage in which the compression wave amplication is coupled with the acceleration of chemical energy release, and a fast reaction shock stage that starts at the onset of a shock wave with a critical Mach number (Mcrit 3.1 3.5) and ends at the maximum of an overdriven detonation. The reaction shock stage is mainly determined by the dust mixture itself and the boundary conditions, whereas the reaction compression stage, though, strongly dependent on initiation energy and initial turbulence intensity, is responsible for the onset of the critical shock wave. In the 0.14 m tube using an initiation energy of 5 kJ, transition to detonation of cornstarch-oxygen mixtures was achieved at a distance of about 120 tube diameters. 3. It is generally expected that the equilibrium calculation of the C-J detonation deviates from the experimental values of a heterogeneous dust detonation wave. Except for the uncertainty of the solid particles in the equilibrium calculations, there are three reasons responsible for this deviation: a) the large transverse wave spacing results in a non-adiabatic combustion; b) contrary to the fundamental postulate of the equilibrium C-J theory, momentum, temperature and chemical equilibrium between the phases may not be achieved at the sonic plane; and c) sedimentation and adhesion of the particles cause diculties in achieving a uniform two-phase mixture assumed in the equilibrium C-J theory. However, the deviation of the detonation velocity from the equilibrium C-J theory can be controlled within ten percentages from the experimental average values for a self-sustained dust detonation wave. The equilibrium C-J theory must be cautiously applied to mixtures with rich dust concentrations for which the experiments showed a plateau extending from the peak values, probably owing to the large time scale of heat transfer from the gaseous products to the unburned dust fuel. In the 0.14 m tube, transition to a self-sustained detonation was also observed in organic dust-air mixtures such as anthraquinone (Zhang and Gr onig 1993). However, in the less sensitive organic dust-air mixtures like cornstarch, DDT was only successful when the initial pressure was raised to 2.5 bar (Zhang and Gr onig 1991b). If the gas phase scaling relation is valid that the detonation cell size is inversely proportional to the initial pressure (Shchelkin and Troshin 1965), a tube diameter of approximately 2 to 2.5 times 0.14 m would be required to achieve a self-sustained detonation in atmospheric cornstarch-air mixtures. Therefore, a new dust detonation tube was developed with a 0.3 m inner diameter and 37 m test section length (i.e., a length-diameter ratio of 124). Direct measurement of the cell size for a dust detonation wave can also be conducted in the new 0.3 m tube using the smokedfoil technique. In this paper, we summarize the studies of

DDT and detonation waves of cornstarch, anthraquinone and aluminum dust suspended in air, using the 0.14 m tube and the 0.3 m tube. The three kinds of dust were chosen due to their broad coverage of dierent levels of dust explosion hazard.

2 Experimental details
While the 0.14 m dust detonation tube can be found in Zhang and Gr onig (1991b), Fig. 1 shows a sketch of a new experimental set-up of the large dust detonation tube 0.3 m in diameter and 40 m in length. The tube is made of stainless steel with a 30 mm wall thickness allowing an operational pressure of 250 bar. The whole tube is divided into the 3 m long initiation section and the 37 m long test section that gives a length-diameter ratio of 124. The latter is composed of 12 tube elements, each 3 m long, and additional instrumentation rings clamped between the anges. All tubes can be interchanged since they are provided with dierent arrangements of measurement ports. A dump tank, 1.4 m in diameter and 6 m in length, is located at the end of the tube to avoid the reection of the detonation wave from the end wall. The initiation section and dump tank are separated from the test section by thin Hostaphan diaphragms prior to the experiment. The dispersion system follows the same principle as that of the 0.14 m dust detonation tube. Considering the large cross section area of the 0.3 m tube, each 3 m tube element has its own oxidizing gas reservoir of 26 dm3 in volume pressurized to 20 bar. The dispersion system contains stainless steel dispersion tubing of 25 mm outer diameter, xed 6 mm above the bottom of the detonation tube. The dispersion tubing has a row of 1.2 mm holes 30 mm apart pointing downwards to the bottom of the detonation tube. Before the tube is closed for an experiment, a dust layer of the required concentration is laid on the bottom of the test section by means of a particularly designed dust cart which moves automatically through the entire tube at constant speed. The dust is dispersed by the gas jets out of the dispersion holes, generated by blowing compressed gas from the pressure reservoirs through solenoid valves into the dispersion tubing. The dispersion time and the pressure rise of the dispersion process inside the detonation tube were calibrated in a 0.3 m inner diameter Lucite tube that was connected to the detonation tube. A fairly uniform dispersion over the cross section was achieved within about 500 ms as shown in Fig. 2. This dispersion time and the pressure rise are then used to determine the lling pressure in the detonation tube to match the desired initial pressure p0 by the time of ignition. A strong initiation is achieved by a stoichiometric H2 O2 detonation wave that is ignited by 9 spark plugs at the upstream end wall of the ignition section. For a weak initiation a 300 J pyrotechnical igniter is used that consists of a primer pill with an exploding wire and a small charge of nitro explosive of 35 mg. It is worthwhile noticing that, for determining the KG -factor, an initiation energy of 10 J was used, whereas for determination of the KST -factor an

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Fig. 1. Schematic of the 0.3 m dust detonation tube with a dust dispersion system

Fig. 3. Smoked-foil (leading edge at x/d = 63.5) and pressure transducers (at x/d = 62.1) on the tube circumference

Fig. 2. Dust dispersion process with gas reservoir pressure of 20 bar and tube lling pressure of 60 kPa

initiation energy of 10 kJ was recommended to obtain stable values (Bartknecht 1978). These K-factors are dened as the maximum rate of pressure rise multiplied by the cubic root of the vessel volume in a constant volume explosion, i.e., K = V 1/3 (dp/dt)max . The subscript G refers to gas and the ST to dust. Thus, an initiation energy threeorder-higher was applied for dust explosions than for gas explosions in a vessel of 20 dm3 or 1 m3 . This clearly indicates that the 300 J pyrotechnical igniter means a weak initiation source for dust explosions in the 0.3 m detonation tube. The measurements included Kistler 603B pressure transducers, ion gauges and photodiodes for the time of arrival of the ame front. Transient recorders with maximum 1 MHz resolution were applied. To measure the cell size directly, we used a smoked-foil made of a 2 mm thick alu-

minum sheet, 0.8 m wide and 1 m long, which was formed into a cylindrical shell of 0.3 m in diameter. Hence, the smoked-foil covered 85% of the tube inner circumference surface. The inner surface of the foil was smoked with the soot from a rich acetylene ame. The smoked-foil was inserted in the middle of the test section and xed without gap on the inner surface of the tube. The leading edge of the smoked-foil was located at a distance of x/d=63.5 where d=0.3 m is the tube inner diameter. Ahead of the foil leading edge at x/d=62.1, seven pressure transducers were inserted on the tube circumference at 45 degree intervals, as displayed in Fig. 3, to measure the pressure histories on the circumference. The dust studied in this paper includes cornstarch, anthraquinone and aluminum. Some of their chemical and physical properties are summarized in Table 1. The explosion hazard increases in the sequence of cornstarch, anthraquinone and aluminum, indicated by the magnitude of the KST -factor. As mentioned above the KST -factor is dened by the maximum rate of the pressure rise and hence reects the sensitivity of dust-air mixtures to explosion. To improve the dust uidity and to reduce the agglomeration, 0.5% (by mass) silicon dioxide with a particle size of 0.015 m was mixed with the test dust. Owing to the little mass added, the inuence of the silicon dioxide additive on the combustion can be neglected.

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F. Zhang, H. Gr onig, A. van de Ven: Dust-air DDT and detonation

Table 1. Chemical and physical properties of dust used in the experiments Material Cornstarch Anthraquinone Aluminum Chemical formula (C6 H10 O5 )n C14 H8 O2 Al Molecular weight, g/mole 162.14 208.23 26.98 Standard enthalpy, kJ/mole 929.5 32.68 0 Material density, 1.3 1.438 2.7 g/cm3 286 660 Melting point, C 22 6 6 36 36 1 Average size, m 10 (spherical) KST -factor, barm/s 160 274 359

3 Transition to detonation in organic dust-air mixtures

3.1 Anthraquinone-air mixtures Transition to detonation in anthraquinone-air mixtures was observed in the 0.14 m detonation tube (Zhang and Gr onig 1993). An example is presented in this section and compared with the results obtained in the new 0.3 m tube. Figure 4 shows the pressure records of the DDT process in a rich anthraquinone-air mixture with an equivalence ratio = 1.75 (dust concentration p = 210 g/m3 ) and an initial pressure of p0 =1 bar. The initiation was made by a 2H2 + O2 detonation wave at an initial pressure of pi = 0.5 p0 . This planar initiation results in a decaying transmitted shock when it propagates into the dust mixture. The shock wave following the leading transmitted shock is caused by the reection of the reected 2H2 + O2 initiation wave at the end wall of the initiation section. Far behind this reected shock, a compression wave is formed and amplied by the ame at x/d > 50 where x is the distance measured from the beginning of the test section. This fact suggests that, at the lower initial pressure of the 2H2 + O2 mixture, the ignition might not be created directly by the transmitted shock but caused by the hot products of the 2H2 + O2 detonation. Coupled with the chemical energy release by the ame, the compression wave is developed into a shock wave with a Mach number of Mcrit 3.3 at x/d 90. Thereafter, within the propagation of the reaction shock complex, an abrupt onset of an overdriven detonation occurs which gradually relaxes into a spinning detonation. Thus, the DDT process can be divided into a reaction compression stage and a reaction shock stage by formation of a critical shock wave which will lead to the onset of detonation. It was observed that the amplication of the compression wave in the reaction compression stage depends on the initiation energy and the initial turbulence strength produced by dispersing the dust to form the suspension. Large initiation energy and strong initial turbulence reduce the transition distance before the formation of the critical shock wave. In contrast, the fast reaction shock stage, dened from the formation

Fig. 4. Transition to detonation in a 22 6 6 m3 anthraquinone-air mixture with = 1.75 at an initial pressure of 1 bar using the 0.14 m tube and 0.5 bar 2H2 + O2 detonation initiation (Zhang et al. 1991b)

of the critical shock wave to the maximum overdriven detonation, is less dependent on the initial conditions because of the large energy release rate and the high ow speed. Hence, the transition distance of the reaction shock stage is mainly determined by the reaction system itself and the boundary conditions. In Fig. 4, the reaction shock stage occurs within a transition distance of about 20 tube diameters. In the 0.3 m detonation tube, transition to detonation in atmospheric anthraquinone-air mixtures was repeated in a concentration range from p = 120 to 200 g/m3 which corresponds to equivalence ratios from = 1 to 1.67. The 300 J pyrotechnical igniter described in Section 2 was used for the initiation. This igniter works very similar to minidetonators and creates a spherical blast that locally initiates a dust ame. Figure 5 provides the pressure records of the DDT process and the ame front trajectory in a rich anthraquinone-air mixture at = 1.67 and Fig. 6 shows the ame velocity varied with the propagation distance. Owing to the weak initiation used, a transmitted shock is not distinguishable and the compression wave is amplied very slowly at the early stage. The compression wave amplication coupled with the chemical energy release by

F. Zhang, H. Gr onig, A. van de Ven: Dust-air DDT and detonation

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Fig. 6. Flame velocity versus propagation distance in a 22 6 6 m3 anthraquinone-air mixture with = 1.67 at an initial pressure of 1 bar using the 0.3 m tube and a 300 J pyrotechnical igniter

Fig. 5. Transition to detonation in a 22 6 6 m3 anthraquinone-air mixture with = 1.67 at an initial pressure of 1 bar using the 0.3 m tube and a 300 J pyrotechnical igniter

the ame can be clearly recognized through the ame front trajectory crossing the rear part of the compression wave. The critical shock wave is formed at x/d 83 with a Mach number of Mcrit 3.4. The location of the critical shock formation can be distinguished from the formation of the shock wave in Fig. 5 and the rapid increase of the ame acceleration in Fig. 6. Within the propagation of the reaction shock, the abrupt onset of an overdriven detonation takes place near x/d 95 with a peak pressure of 75 bar. Although the initiation energy and method are dierent from those used in the 0.14 m tube, the reaction shock stage starting from the onset of the critical shock wave to the maximum overdriven detonation occurs more or less within the same transition distance of about 20 tube diameters as shown in Fig. 4. This indicates the independence of the reaction shock stage from the initial conditions. After its maximum, the overdriven detonation wave then begins to relax towards its stable mode, which has two transverse wave heads observed in the pressure proles on the circumference. Comparing Fig. 5 with Fig. 4 where the interference of the transmitted shock generated by the planar initiation exists, the reaction compression stage and the reaction shock stage are more clearly identied in Fig. 5 during the dust DDT process using weak initiation. The detailed structure of the stable spinning detonation for anthraquinone-air mixtures was recorded in the pressure proles on the tube circumference. Figure 7 dis-

plays a single-head spinning wave obtained in the 0.14 m tube for an anthraquinone-air mixture, where the single transverse wave head can be recognized on the prole numbered 6. Table 2 summarizes the experimental detonation velocity, pressure and the number of transverse wave heads of the stable detonation for anthraquinone-air mixtures. Note that the recorded pressure of the transverse wave heads may not achieve its maximum value since the records were taken from the maximum front pressure of the eight pressure transducers distributed on the tube circumference. The C-J equilibrium calculations were conducted using the STANJAN code (Reynolds 1986), where the reaction products are assumed to be gas and solid carbon for organic dust, and gas and condensed phase for the aluminum dust (Zhang et al. 1992). The fairly good agreement between the experimental detonation velocities and the theoretical equilibrium C-J values, shown in Fig. 8, indicates that the stable dust detonation velocity mainly depends on the energetics. However, the theoretical C-J detonation velocities exhibit a shift towards the lean side simply because the nominal concentration marked in the horizontal coordinate is larger than the real concentration owing to sedimentation and adhesion to the tube wall. Experimental determination of the C-J detonation pressure is more dicult than the detonation velocity in dust mixtures, since the large transverse wave spacing of the detonation front ascribes a number of oscillations to the pressure proles. Figure 9 shows the detonation pressure for anthraquinone-air mixtures. Rather than identifying an interpretation from the oscillatory pressure record for the C-J pressure, the peaks and valleys are plotted. The solid curve denotes the theoretical C-J value from the equilibrium calculations. If one considers a mean value, the agreement is quite good. 3.2 Cornstarch-air mixtures For insensitive dust-air mixtures such as cornstarch-air whose KST -factor is only 0.58 times that for anthraquinone, the experiments in the 0.14 m detonation tube showed that a successful transition to detonation was ob-

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F. Zhang, H. Gr onig, A. van de Ven: Dust-air DDT and detonation

Fig. 7. Pressure proles on the 0.14 m tube circumference in a 22 6 6 m3 anthraquinone-air mixture with = 1.45 at an initial pressure of 1.15 bar (Zhang and Gr onig 1993) Table 2. Detonation properties of anthraquinone-air mixtures measured in the 0.14 m tube at T0 = 293 K (Zhang and Gr onig 1993) p0 bar 1 p g/m3 195 210 240 265 280 97 125 138 160 200 207 276 350 414 440 1.63 1.75 2.00 2.21 2.33 0.70 0.90 1.00 1.16 1.45 1.50 2.00 2.54 3.00 3.20 D m/s 1390 1650 1619 1607 1337 1391 1620 1656 1669 1711 1722 1704 1630 1446 1350 pp /p0 20 27 26 25 18 20.9 27.8 29.6 29.6 32.2 32.2 28.7 25.2 21.7 17.4 pH /p0 n Lean limit 1 1 1 Rich limit Lean limit 1 1 1 1 2 1 Rich limit

56 52 52

1.15

52.2 53.9 54.8 85.2 85.2 64.3 49.6 45.2

Note: p0 initial pressure; p dust concentration; equivalence ratio; D detonation velocity; pp peak pressure of the pressure oscillation behind the front; pH pressure of the transverse wave head; n - number of transverse wave heads

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Fig. 8. Detonation velocities in 22 6 6 m3 anthraquinoneair mixtures (Zhang et al. 1992)

Fig. 10. Transition to detonation in a 10 m cornstarch-air mixture with = 2 at an initial pressure of 2.5 bar using the 0.14 m tube and a 2.5 bar 2H2 + O2 detonation initiation (Zhang and Gr onig 1991b)

Fig. 9. Detonation pressures in 22 6 6 m3 anthraquinoneair mixtures (Zhang et al. 1992)

tained only when the initial pressure raised to p0 =2.5 bar (Zhang and Gr onig 1991b). Figure 10 shows the pressure records of the DDT process for a cornstarch-air mixture at = 2 with p = 1165 g/m3 , using a strong initiation of a 2H2 + O2 detonation wave at an initial pressure pi = p0 . The DDT process follows a similar way as that in anthraquinone-air mixtures, except that the pressure levels are much higher due to the increased initial pressure. Within the propagation of the reaction shock, an abrupt onset of an overdriven detonation can be recognized at about x/d = 113, accompanied by a strong retonation wave which can be seen on the pressure proles. For an initial pressure of p0 = 2 bar under the same initial conditions, an acceleration up to a shock velocity of only D 1400 m/s was observed within the tube length. The stable detonation of a cornstarch-air mixture at = 2 and 2.5 bar initial pressure was observed as a single-head spinning wave with a detonation velocity of 1773 m/s and a detonation pressure of 30.4 p0 (Zhang and Gr onig 1993).

In the theory of gas detonations, the empirical correlation by Kogarko and Zeldovich (1948) links the minimum tube diameter for propagation of a stable, self-sustained detonation wave to the cell width of the cellular detonation by dmin (1) = / . Moreover, a scaling rule has been postulated for gaseous detonations that the cell size is inversely proportional to the initial pressure, i.e., p with = 1 (Shchelkin 0 and Troshin 1965). If this scaling rule and Eq. (1) are assumed to be valid for dust detonations, we obtain that the minimum tube diameter for the propagation of a selfsustained dust detonation wave would be inversely proportional to the initial pressure:
dmin p 0

= 0(1) .

(2)

From the experimental observation in the 0.14 m tube and Eqs. (1) and (2), an estimate of 0.88 m 1.10 m and 0.28 m dmin 0.35 m was made of a self-sustained detonation in cornstarch-air mixtures at normal atmospheric pressure. This estimate was conrmed by the DDT experiments in the 0.3 m detonation tube using the weak 300 J pyrotechnical igniter. Figure 11 shows the pressure

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F. Zhang, H. Gr onig, A. van de Ven: Dust-air DDT and detonation

Fig. 12. Flame velocity versus propagation distance in a 10 m cornstarch-air mixture with = 1.72 at an initial pressure of 1 bar using the 0.3 m tube. : initiation by a single 300 J pyrotechnical igniter; : initiation by four 300 J pyrotechnical igniters

Fig. 11. Transition to detonation in a 10 m cornstarch-air mixture with = 1.72 at an initial pressure of 1 bar using the 0.3 m tube and a 300 J pyrotechnical igniter

records of the DDT process and the ame front trajectory in a rich cornstarch-air mixture at = 1.72 with p = 400 g/m3 . Owing to the weak initiation used, a transmitted shock is not distinguishable and the compression wave is amplied very slowly at the early stage. The compression wave amplication coupled with the acceleration of chemical energy release can be recognized through the ame front trajectory crossing the rear part of the compression waves. An abrupt onset of overdriven detonation takes place at x/d > 115 with a retonation wave propagating towards the beginning of the tube where the igniter was located. The overdriven detonation reaches a peak pressure of 49 bar and a ame front velocity of about 1900 m/s at the end of the tube (see Fig. 12). It is unclear if the overdriven detonation would further accelerate. In order to observe a complete DDT process of the same cornstarch-air mixture, the igniters were increased to four 300 J pyrotechnical igniters. The four igniters were inserted into the tube wall at the beginning of the tube, pairwise opposite at x/d = 0.27 and x/d = 3.55, and were ignited at the same time. Figure 13 shows the pressure records of the DDT process and the ame front trajectory using 4 igniters. The DDT process is very similar to that using a single igniter displayed in Fig. 11, however, the compression wave amplication coupled with the acceleration of chemical energy release is faster. Thereafter, a critical shock wave with a Mach number of about Mcrit 3.4 is formed at x/d 95, where the ame acceleration be-

comes rapidly increased (see also in Fig. 12). The formation of the critical shock wave turns the DDT process into the reaction shock stage, in which the abrupt onset of overdriven detonation leads the detonation to its maximum at x/d 115, accompanied by a retonation wave propagating backwards. Thereafter, the overdriven detonation begins to relax towards its stable detonation state. However, the stable detonation has yet to be achieved at the end of the tube. The reaction shock stage from the formation of the critical shock wave to the maximum overdriven detonation occurs within a transition distance of 20 tube diameters. It is noticed in Fig. 12 that the ame acceleration has a rapid increase near x/d = 100 when four igniters were used, whereas the ame acceleration is increased gradually in the case of one igniter. The coincidence of rapid increase of the ame acceleration and the formation of the critical shock wave was also observed in the anthraquinone-air mixture displayed in Fig. 6. Although the measurement accuracy of the ame front is limited by the non-planarity of the ame front, the rapid increase of the ame acceleration near the formation of the critical shock wave might indicate that the critical shock wave would be conditioned not only by a Mach number but also by the slope behind the shock front. To measure the structure and the properties of the stable self-sustained detonation, direct initiation of dust detonation was applied in the 0.3 m tube using the 2H2 + O2 detonation initiation with an initial pressure of pi = 2p0 . Figure 14 shows that an overdriven detonation is established at the beginning of the tube for a cornstarch-air mixture of p = 400 g/m3 at an initial pressure of p0 = 1 bar. The overdriven detonation relaxes into a single-head spinning detonation at about x/d = 20, recognized by the oscillating frequency of the pressure proles. Thereafter, the detonation propagated steadily along the rest of the tube (about 100 tube diameters) at a constant velocity of 1615 m/s which is in agreement with the trend observed in the DDT experiments. The single-head spinning detonation structure is clearly indicated by the structure of

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Fig. 13. Transition to detonation in a 10 m cornstarch-air mixture with = 1.72 at an initial pressure of 1 bar using the 0.3 m tube and four 300 J pyrotechnical igniters

the wave front and the frequency of the pressure oscillations in the pressure proles on the circumference at x/d = 82.7 shown in Fig. 15. The pressure transducers numbered from 101 to 108 are ordered clockwise on the circumference at equal intervals of 45 degrees. The spinning direction is clockwise and the transverse wave head can be recognized in the pressure prole numbered 101. The single-head spinning mode results in an estimate of a detonation cell size of = d = 0.94 m. Thus, the successful DDT results and the observation of the single-head spinning detonation in the 0.3 m tube conrm the estimate of Zhang and Gr onig (1991b) for the minimum tube diameter for a self-sustained cornstarch detonation in atmospheric air. Table 3 summarizes the experimental detonation velocity, pressure and the number of transverse wave heads for the self-sustained cornstarch-air detonations at 1 bar initial pressure obtained in the 0.3 m tube. The calculated C-J detonation velocities, shown in Fig. 16 are in fairly good agreement with the experimental detonation velocities, however, with a shift towards the lean side. The reasons for the deviation are the same as explained earlier for the anthraquinone-air mixtures. As the mixtures become richer, the calculated C-J velocity drops, however, the experimental values show only a slight decrease or a plateau extending from the peak values, probably owing to the large time scale of heat transfer from the gaseous products to the unburned dust fuel. The detonation pressures are shown in Fig. 17 where the experimental peak

Fig. 14. Direct initiation of detonation in a 10 m cornstarchair mixture with = 1.72 at an initial pressure of 1 bar using the 0.3 m tube and 2 bar 2H2 + O2 detonation initiation

and valley pressures are plotted averaged over a period of about 2 ms behind the front. The equilibrium C-J pressures are close to the median value between the extreme pressures.

4 Transition to detonation in aluminum dust-air mixtures

In the literature, aluminum dust-air detonations were investigated using strong initiation and in tubes of small length-diameter ratios (Tulis and Selman 1982, Borisov et al. 1991). The detonation velocities observed by Tulis and Selman were widely spread out, probably due to different geometry and sizes of the aluminum dust used. On the other hand, Borisov et al. studied two kinds of aluminum dust, 1 m spherical dust and 10 x 10 x 1 m3 aked dust, and observed consistent detonation velocities in a tube of 0.122 m inner diameter and 4.2 m length (i.e., a length-diameter-ratio of 34) with strong chemical initiation. These results indicate that the detonation properties might be inuenced by the minimum thickness of the aluminum dust. For the observation of DDT and the selfsustenance of detonation for a long distance, tubes of a large length-diameter ratio using a weak initiation source would be preferred. DDT experiments using weak initiation may also indicate the inuence of the kinetic-limited

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F. Zhang, H. Gr onig, A. van de Ven: Dust-air DDT and detonation

Fig. 15. Pressure proles on the 0.3 m tube circumference at x/d = 82.7 in a 10 m cornstarch-air mixture with = 1.72 at an initial pressure of 1 bar

surface reaction that depends on temperature and pressure. The 300 J pyrotechnical igniter was used as a weak initiation in the 0.3 m detonation tube to study the DDT process for aked aluminum dust which had a thickness of about 1m and a ake size distribution less than 36 36 m2 . Because the KST -factor of the aluminum dust used is 1.3 times that for anthraquinone dust (see Table 1), one can expect that DDT can be achieved earlier than for anthraquinone dust in air. Figure 18 shows the pressure

records of the DDT process and the ame front trajectory for a rich aluminum dust-air mixture with = 1.61 (p = 500 g/m3 ) at an initial pressure of 1 bar. Figure 19 gives the ame and shock velocity varied with the propagation distance. The DDT process consists of a reaction compression stage and a reaction shock stage, and the two transition stages are divided by the formation of a shock wave with a critical Mach number of Mcrit 3.4 at x/d = 40. The formation of the critical shock wave is characterized by the shock Mach number and the rapid in-

F. Zhang, H. Gr onig, A. van de Ven: Dust-air DDT and detonation Table 3. Detonation properties of cornstarch-air mixtures measured in the 0.3 m tube at p0 = 1 bar and T0 = 293 K p g/m3 160 200 300 400 500 600 700 D m/s 1462 1495 1581 1615 1600 1575 1541 pp bar 22.5 24.9 29.0 28.5 24.6 23.0 22.5 pv bar 9.5 10.1 12.5 11.5 12.0 11.5 10.0 pH bar 98 98 n

63

0.69 0.86 1.29 1.72 2.15 2.58 3.00

Lean limit 1 1 1 1 1 Rich limit

Note: p - dust concentration; - equivalence ratio; D - detonation velocity; pp - peak pressure of the pressure oscillation behind the front; pv - valley pressure of the pressure oscillation behind the front; pH - pressure of the transverse wave head; n - number of transverse wave heads

Fig. 16. Detonation velocities in 10 m cornstarch-air mixtures at an initial pressure of 1 bar

Fig. 17. Detonation pressures in 10 m cornstarch-air mixtures at an initial pressure of 1 bar

crease of the ame acceleration shown in Figs. 18 and 19. The overdriven detonation reaches a maximum velocity of ame and shock at x/d between 50 and 55 with a peak pressure of 66 bar. Thus, the reaction shock stage from the onset of the critical shock wave to the maximum of the overdriven detonation occurs within a transition distance of about 15 tube diameters. Note that the entire transition distance displayed in Fig. 18 is the shortest among

the organic and aluminum dust studied using the 300 J igniter. In contrast to the DDT in cornstarch-air mixtures, the retonation wave created during the onset of the aluminum dust detonation is rather weak. After the maximum, the overdriven detonation relaxes towards a stable detonation with a propagation velocity of 1750 m/s. The structure of the stable detonation is displayed in the pressure traces on the tube circumference at x/d = 82.7 shown in Fig. 20, where the pressure transducers from 101 to 108 are ordered clockwise on the circumference at equal intervals of 45 degrees. From these pressure proles at least four transverse wave heads can be recognized in the traces 101, 103, 105 and 106 which, together with the oscillation frequency, indicate a cellular detonation with a cell size of about 0.4 m. Unlike the organic dust, the pressure oscillations behind the detonation front exist in aluminum dust only for a short time with small amplitudes between peaks and valleys. Transition from deagration to detonation was also investigated under the same conditions, but the aluminum concentration was reduced towards the lean limit. Figure 21 provides the pressure records and the ame front trajectory of the DDT process for a lean aluminum-air mixture with = 0.645 (p = 200 g/m3 ), and Fig. 22 shows its ame velocity along the propagation distance. The DDT process can still be divided into a reaction compression stage and a reaction shock stage by the formation of the critical shock wave, which is identied by the formation of the shock behind the precursor shock at x/d 100 in Fig. 21 and by the rapid increase of the ame acceleration near x/d = 100 in Fig. 22. However, owing to the less sensitive lean mixture, the reaction compression stage becomes a multiple compression one in which the second compression wave is amplied behind the precursor shock wave that was developed by the rst compression wave (see Fig. 21). The rst compression wave amplication can be recognized at 0 < x/d < 50 through the ame front trajectory crossing the backside of the compression wave. This results in a precursor shock at x/d 52. The second compression wave amplication,

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F. Zhang, H. Gr onig, A. van de Ven: Dust-air DDT and detonation

Fig. 19. Flame and shock velocity versus propagation distance in a 36 36 1 m3 aked aluminum-air mixture with = 1.61 at an initial pressure of 1 bar using the 0.3 m tube and a 300 J pyrotechnical igniter. O : ame front; : shock front

Fig. 18. Transition to detonation in a 36 36 1 m3 aked aluminum-air mixture with = 1.61 at an initial pressure of 1 bar using the 0.3 m tube and a 300 J pyrotechnical igniter

coupled with chemical energy release by the ame, can be recognized at 50 < x/d < 105 through the ame front trajectory crossing the backside of the compression wave behind the precursor shock. This multiple compression stage was also observed in a lean cornstarch-oxygen mixture at an initial pressure of 1 bar in the 0.14 m detonation tube (Zhang and Gr onig 1991b). Examining the DDT process in the lean aluminum-air mixture here, the rst compression wave develops gently into a precursor shock, driven by a very slowly accelerated or almost steady ame at a velocity of about 230 m/s for a propagation distance of 10 meter (i.e., 33 tube diameters). Thereafter, while the precursor shock propagates quasi-steadily, a second compression wave is amplied downstream through the larger acceleration of the ame. It is this second compression amplication that leads to the critical shock Mach number and consequently to the onset of the overdriven detonation behind the precursor shock at the end of the tube. The experimental detonation velocity of Borisov et al. (1991) and the present studies of aluminum-air mixtures are summarized in Fig. 23. Although the aluminum dust includes 1 m spheres, 10 10 1 m3 and 36 36 1 m3 akes, their detonation velocities are approximately the same. This indicates that the detonability might be determined by the minimum thickness of the aluminum dust. Below a limit of the particle thickness, the detonation velocity mainly depends on the energetic of aluminum. Therefore, the results can be considered as the val-

ues of stable self-sustained detonation waves. The slightly high detonation velocity for the aluminum concentration of 310 g/m3 obtained at the end of the 0.3 m tube can be considered to be still in the overdriven state. As discussed earlier for the anthraquinone-air and cornstarch-air mixtures, the calculated C-J detonation velocities show a few per cent deviation from the experimental values with a shift towards the lean side. The equilibrium C-J velocity must be cautiously applied to mixtures with rich dust concentrations for which the experiments showed a plateau extending from the peak values. In summary, the average values of DDT parameters obtained in the 0.3 m dust detonation tube using the 300 J pyrotechnical igniter are listed in Table 4, where the Oppenheim transition velocity is an average velocity dened by the transition distance divided by the transition time. Note that the maximum DDT pressure only serves as a reference since the location of the pressure transducers may not be right at the position of the maximum overdriven detonation. Table 4 shows that the transition distance is reduced in the sequence of cornstarch, anthraquinone and aluminum dust. This is in agreement with the KST -factor which increased from 160, 274 to 359 barm/s for cornstarch, anthraquinone and aluminum dust. Although the transition distance ranges widely from 50 to 120 for the organic and aluminum dust studied over a wide range of the KST -factor, the Oppenheim velocity amounts only to values between 200 and 300 m/s.

5 Minimum tube diameter for stable dust-air detonations

For homogeneous gaseous mixtures, Dove and Wagner (1960) suggested that the single-head spinning wave should be the lowest, stable, self-sustained detonation mode in round tubes (Denisov and Troshin 1960, Schott 1965, Strehlow and Crooker 1974). From this point of view, the existence of the single-head spinning detonation is a criterion for the minimum tube diameter dmin , which is a necessary boundary condition for the transition to and propagation of a stable detonation. Our experiments in organic dust-oxygen and organic dust-air mixtures have directly proven that the criterion of the single-head spinning

F. Zhang, H. Gr onig, A. van de Ven: Dust-air DDT and detonation

65

Fig. 20. Pressure proles on the 0.3 m tube circumference at x/d = 82.7 in a 36 36 1 m3 aked aluminum-air mixture with = 1.61 at an initial pressure of 1 bar

mode is also valid for the transition to and propagation of a stable heterogeneous dust detonation in tubes. The minimum tube diameters obtained for the stable dust-air detonation waves are summarized in Table 5, where the result for the sub-bituminous coal-air mixture of Gardner et al. (1986) is also listed. For the aluminum dust-air detonation studied in the 0.3 m detonation tube, a cell size of about 0.4 m was obtained. If Eq. (1) that relates the minimum tube diameter to the cell size of the cellular detonation is also valid for the heterogeneous dust detonation, a minimum tube diameter of about 0.12 m would be obtained for a stable aluminum dust detonation in air. This estimate is in good agreement with the spin-

ning aluminum dust-air detonation observed by Borisov et al. (1991) in a 0.122 m detonation tube. On the other hand, in the case of the closed vessel dust explosion in air, the KST -factor, KST = V 1/3 (dp/dt)max , has been used to classify the explosion hazard of various kinds of dust. The KST -factor provides a measure of the reaction rate for constant volume explosions. However, gravity sedimentation, dispersion-induced turbulence, ignition delay time, and vessel volume can signicantly inuence the KST -factor. It was concluded from numerous experiments in spherical vessels of dierent sizes that a 20 dm3 sphere is the minimum volume for determining explosion parameters (Bartknecht 1978). The KST -factors of about

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F. Zhang, H. Gr onig, A. van de Ven: Dust-air DDT and detonation Table 4. DDT properties of organic and aluminum dust in air measured in the 0.3 m tube Dust Cornstarch 10 m diameter p g/m3 200 250 300 400 500 120 200 200 310 500 0.86 1.07 1.29 1.72 2.15 1.00 1.67 0.65 1.00 1.61 XDDT /d 124 120 114 97 96 120 65 49 Vopp m/s 236 236 238 183 223 252 305 306 PDDT bar 59 51 49 55 75 70 49 66 VF,DDT m/s 1800 1960 2150 2000 2250 2000 2000 2300

Anthraquinone 22 6 6 m3 Aluminum 36 36 1 m3

Note: p dust concentration; equivalence ratio; XDDT /d DDT distance dened from the beginning to the location of maximum overdriven detonation; PDDT maximum DDT pressure dened by the peak of maximum overdriven detonation; VF,DDT maximum ame velocity dened by the value of maximum overdriven detonation. Table 5. Experimental minimum tube diameter and KST -factor Dust U.S. W. Sub-Bituminous coala Cornstarch Anthraquinone Aluminum Size m 100 10 22 6 6 36 36 1 KST barm/s 59b 160 274 359 dmin m 0.6 0.3 0.14 0.12

Note: a - Gardner et al. (1986); b - Fangrat et al. (1987).

60 kinds of dust observed in both the 20 dm3 sphere and a 1 m3 cylindrical vessel with L/d = 1 are in good agreement. Hence, both vessels have been used as reference vessels to determine the KST -factor. Experimental values of the KST -factors for the dust types studied are also summarized in Table 5, where the KST -factor for anthraquinone and aluminum were obtained using the 20 dm3 sphere, and the KST -factor for cornstarch is the average value obtained from the 20 dm3 and 1 m3 vessel. However, due to the lack of a KST -factor for the American Western Sub-bituminous coal, the value of brown coal obtained in a 5.6 liter cylindrical vessel by Fangrat et al. (1987) was cited since both coal dusts have approximately the same particle sizes and volatile contents. Considering the expensive dust detonation tests in large facilities, attempt was made to correlate the minimum tube diameter and the KST -factor, based on the consideration that for insensitive dust-air mixtures, the reaction rate of detonation may not be far from the reaction rate of constant volume explosion. Because an increase in the reaction rate causes an increase in the KST -factor but a decrease in the minimum tube diameter, it was assumed that the product of the minimum tube diameter and the KST -factor could be weakly dependent on the re-

action rate. Therefore, the empirical correlation suggested was (Zhang and Gr onig 1993):
n constant dmin KST

(3)

with n = 1. This relation represents a force rate with the dimension of N/s. Correlation (3) with the constant equal to 40 barm/s is plotted in Fig. 24 and is in good agreement with the experimental data of Table 5. The majority of industrial and agricultural dusts have a KST factor less than 700 barm/s. Thus, an overall lower limit of dmin 60 mm can be obtained from (3) (see dashed line in Fig. 24). The KST -factor of most dusts ranges from 40 to 400 barm/s, which corresponds to a minimum tube diameter for stable dust-air detonations from about 1 m to 0.1 m.

6 Transverse wave structure of detonation fronts

In the 0.14 m detonation tube, the detonation structure was studied in detail for a single-head spinning detonation wave and a two-head spinning or a single cell detonation

F. Zhang, H. Gr onig, A. van de Ven: Dust-air DDT and detonation

67

Fig. 23. Detonation velocities in aluminum-air mixtures at an initial pressure of 1 bar

Fig. 21. Transition to detonation in a 36 36 1 m3 aked aluminum-air mixture at = 0.645 and an initial pressure of 1 bar using the 0.3 m tube and a 300 J pyrotechnical igniter

Fig. 24. dmin -KST diagram

Fig. 22. Flame velocity versus propagation distance in a 36 36 1 m3 aked aluminum-air mixture at = 0.645 and an initial pressure of 1 bar using the 0.3 m tube and a 300 J pyrotechnical igniter

wave, as shown in Figs. 25 and 26 for cornstarch-oxygen mixtures (Zhang and Gr onig 1991a, 1992). These transverse wave structures were obtained by indirect methods through a large number of pressure transducers and ion gauges. For a direct determination of the cellular structure, the smoked-foil technique was used in the 0.3 m detonation tube (van de Ven 1998). The leading edge of the smoked-foil was located at x/d = 63.5, and 0.42 m ahead of the leading edge 7 pressure transducers were inserted on the tube circumference at 45 degree intervals to mea-

sure the pressure histories (see Fig. 3). The detonation experiments were carried out in a cornstarch-oxygen mixture of p = 440 g/m3 ( = 0.8) and at an initial pressure of 0.5 bar. Using 1.2 bar 2H2 + O2 detonation initiation, a stable detonation wave was quickly established at a steady detonation velocity of 1895 m/s. Figure 27 displays the circumferential pressure proles and Fig. 28 shows the smoked-foil record for one experiment. Figure 29 provides the smoked-foil record for a repeated experiment under the same conditions. The soot photographs display more than one and a half cells within the foil width of approximately 0.8 m, and three transverse wave heads can also be recognized in the pressure proles numbered by 1, 5 and 6. The cell width measured from the soot photographs has an average value of = 0.50 m and the average cell length is measured to be L = 0.77 m. An average track angle of the triple point trajectory can be estimated by = tan1 (/L) = 33 , which gives an average transverse wave velocity of C = 0.649D = 1230 m/s. Recalling that in the 0.14 m tube, the single-head spinning detonation mode was obtained in a mixture of = 1 at 0.5 bar initial pressure displayed in Fig. 25, the result of = 0.50 m here for the cellular detonation in the slightly leaner mixture of = 0.8 at the same initial pressure proves that the

68

F. Zhang, H. Gr onig, A. van de Ven: Dust-air DDT and detonation

Fig. 25. Spinning detonation front structure on the 0.14 m tube circumference in a cornstarch-oxygen mixture of = 1 at an initial pressure of 0.5 bar. x: axial coordinate; y: circumferential coordinate (Zhang and Gr onig 1991a)

minimum tube diameter equation (1), dmin = / , is also valid for the stable dust detonation. Although the single cell structure in the 0.14 m tube was measured for the rich mixture of = 3.1 at an initial pressure of 1.15 bar (see Fig. 26), the corresponding average transverse wave velocity C = 0.62D is very close to the value obtained in the 0.3 m tube for the lean mixture. This indicates that the relationship between the average transverse wave velocity and the detonation velocity may be invariant to the dust concentration.

7 Conclusion
Self-sustained detonation waves can develop in pulverized organic or metallic particles suspended in air. Like dust detonations in oxygen observed previously, the propagation mechanism of the self-sustained dust detonations in air essentially depends on the transverse waves that provide the coupling between the shock wave and the chemical reaction. Owing to additional time scales required for mass, momentum and heat transfer between the solid particles and the oxidizing gas environment, the transverse wave spacing of a dust detonation wave is much larger than that for homogeneous gas detonation waves. Consequently, propagation of a conned self-sustained dust detonation in air requires a large tube diameter. Two dust detonation tubes, 0.14 m and 0.3 m in diameter with a length-diameter ratio of 124, were used to study the selfsustained dust detonations and the transition from deagration to detonation in dust-air mixtures of cornstarch,

anthraquinone and aluminum. These dusts represent three dierent levels of explosion hazard. The studies resulted in an estimate that tubes 0.1 m to 1 m in diameter would be required for the propagation of a stable detonation wave in combustible dust-air mixtures whose KST -factor ranges from 400 to 40 barm/s. Because heterogeneous dust-air mixtures are insensitive to detonation, transition from deagration to detonation in tubes requires a sucient tube length-diameter ratio and an initiation energy stronger than that used in gaseous DDT. In the dust DDT process using relatively weak initiation, a shock wave having a critical Mach number is formed that divides the DDT process into a slow reaction compression stage and a fast reaction shock stage. The reaction shock stage is dened as the pre-detonation stage between the onset of the critical shock wave and the achievement of the maximum overdriven detonation. Depending on the initiation energy, the reaction compression stage can undergo a multiple compression amplication process. The above-mentioned dust-air DDT mechanism is essentially the same as that in an oxygen environment studied previously. It is still unknown how the reaction compression stage quantitatively varies with initiation energy and initial turbulence intensity. It was the rst time that the cell size of a cellular dust detonation was directly measured using the smoked-foil technique in the 0.3 m detonation tube. The cell size and the average transverse wave velocity are in good agreement with the transverse wave structure of spinning and single cell detonation waves determined by pressure transducers and ion gauges previously. The studies of the transverse wave structure represent an important step towards the physical description of heterogeneous dust detonations. However, the fundamental studies of dust detonations are still in an early stage and many fundamental problems remain unsolved. Detonation equilibrium parameters are available experimentally only for a few dust-air mixtures. Few dynamic detonation parameters including the ordinary cell size, critical initiation energy and critical tube diameter have yet to be directly measured. The upper limit of the dust size has not been studied above which the transverse wave structure of a self-sustained dust detonation wave may not be realized. Although the similarity of the detonation onset and propagation mechanism between heterogeneous dust detonations and homogeneous gas detonations would suggest that the chemical energy release of dust detonation could mainly take place in the vapour phase, this postulate has yet to be observed directly. Moreover, unlike organic ne particles which contain volatiles and have a relatively high vapor pressure, metallic particles such as aluminum possess an oxide lm that has a high melting temperature, thus raising the diculty in interpreting the shock initiation and detonation. The melting temperature of aluminum, which has often been used as its shock ignition temperature in the literature, only provides a very low vapour pressure in the order of 106 Pa. Hence, vapour phase or diusion-limited ignition mechanism can be ques-

F. Zhang, H. Gr onig, A. van de Ven: Dust-air DDT and detonation

69

Fig. 26. Two-head detonation front structure on the 0.14 m tube circumference in a cornstarch-oxygen mixture of = 3.1 at an initial pressure of 1.15 bar. x: axial coordinate; y: circumferential coordinate. : shock front; : ame front; : unresolvable between shock and ame front (Zhang and Gr onig 1992)

Fig. 27. Pressure proles on the 0.3 m tube circumference at x/d = 62.1 in a 10 m cornstarch-oxygen mixture with = 0.8 at an initial pressure of 0.5 bar

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F. Zhang, H. Gr onig, A. van de Ven: Dust-air DDT and detonation Dove JE, Wagner, HG (1960) A photographic investigation of the mechanisms of spinning detonation. In: Proceedings of the 8th Symposium (Int.) on Combustion, The Combustion Institute, Pittsburgh, 589600 Fangrat J, Glinka W, Wolanski P, Wolinski M (1987) Detonation structure in organic dust-oxygen mixtures. Archivum combustionis 7: 321332 Gardner BR, Winter RJ, Moore MJ (1986) Explosion Development and Deagration-to-Detonation Transition in Coal Dust/Air Suspensions. In: Proceedings of the 21st Symposium (Int.) on Combustion, The Combustion Institute, Pittsburgh, 335343 Gr onig H (1997) Dust Detonations. JSME International Journal Series B, Vol. 40: 115 Kauman CW, Wolanski P, Arisoy A, Adams PR, Maker BN, Nicholls JA (1984) Dust, hybrid and dusty detonations. In: Proceedings of 9th ICDERS, AIAA Progress in Astronautics and Aeronautics, AIAA New York, Vol. 94: 221240 Kogarko SM, Zeldovich YaB (1948) On detonation of gas mixtures. Doklady Akademii Nauk SSSR, 63: 553556 Lee JHS (1988) Dust Explosion: An Overview. In: Gr onig H (ed.) Shock Tubes and Waves. VCH Weinheim, 3138 Li YC, Alexander CG, Wolanski P, Kauman CW, Sichel M (1993) Experimental Investigation of Accelerating Flames and Transition to Detonation in Layered Grain Dust. In: Kuhl AL, Leyer JC, Borisov AA, Sirignano WA (eds.) Dynamic Aspects of Explosion Phenomena, Progress in Astronautics and Aeronautics, AIAA New York, Vol. 154: 170 184 Lundstrom EA, Oppenheim AK (1969) On the Inuence of Nonsteadiness on the Thickness of the Detonation Wave. Proc. R. Soc. London, Ser. A 310: 463 Peraldi O, Veyssiere B (1986) Experimental Study of Detonations in Starch Particle Suspensions with O2 /N2 , H2 /O2 and C2 H4 /O2 Mixtures. In: Bowen JR, Leyer JC, Soloukhin RI (eds.) Dynamics of Explosions, Progress in Astronautics and Aeronautics, AIAA New York, Vol. 106: 490504 Reynolds WC (1986) Implementation in the reactive program STANJAN, version 3. Stanford Univ. Rep. Shchelkin KI, Troshin YaK (1965) Gasdynamics of Combustion. Academy of Sciences, Moscow. Translated by Kuvshino BW and Holtschlag L, Mono Book Corp., Baltimore, Md, Schott GL (1965) Observations of the Structure of Spinning Detonation. Phys. Fluids 8: 850865 Strehlow RA, Crooker AJ (1974) The Structure of Marginal Detonation Waves. Acta Astronaut. 1: 303315 Tulis AJ, Selman JR (1982) Detonation tube studies of aluminum particles dispersed in air. In: Proceedings of the 19th Symposium (Int.) on Combustion, The Combustion Institute, Pittsburgh, 655663 van de Ven A (1998) Staubdetonationen in einer Rohrleitung mit 300 mm Durchmesser. Dissertation RWTH Aachen (D82), Shock Wave Laboratory, Shaker Verlag, Aachen Wolanski P (1991) Deagration and detonation of dust mixtures. In: Kuhl AL, Leyer JC Borisov AA, Sirignano WA (eds.) Dynamics of deagration and reaction systems: Heterogeneous combustion, Progress in Astronautics and Aeronautics, AIAA New York, Vol. 132: 331 Zhang F, Gr onig H (1991a) Spin Detonation in Reactive Particles-Oxidizing Gas Flow. Phys. Fluids A 3: 19831990

Fig. 28. Cellular detonation structure of a smoked-foil record on the 0.3 m tube circumference at x/d = 63.5 in a 10 m cornstarch-oxygen mixture with = 0.8 at an initial pressure of 0.5 bar. Scale length is 0.1 m and the detonation propagates from left to right

Fig. 29. Cellular detonation structure of a smoked-foil record on the 0.3 m tube circumference. Conditions and scale are the same as in Fig. 28

tionable at the earlier stage of the ignition of metallic particles with high melting temperatures.
Acknowledgements. The research presented in this paper was partially supported by the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, Bonn, by BASF AG, Ludwigshafen, BG Chemie, Heidelberg and BG Nahrungsmittel and Gastst atten, Mannheim. The authors are indebted to Mrs. Odenthal for her professional preparation of the manuscript. They would also like to thank Mr. Habermann for the nal version of the gures.

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