Influence of Small Xe Additives on the Detonation Threshold for O₂−H₂−He Mixtures

Abstract

The effect of a small Xe additive on the conditions of detonation initiation in incident shock waves of various intensities is studied. The experiments are carried out on a shock tube facility with 10% H₂ + 5% O₂ + 85% He, 10% H₂ + 5% O₂ + 84.75% He + 0.25% Xe, and 10% H₂ + 5% O₂ + 84.5% He + 0.5% Xe mixtures. The addition of Xe led to a shift in the detonation threshold toward weaker shock waves. This effect is probably due to a significant increase in the frequency of high-energy collisions between O₂ and Xe molecules in the shock wave front in comparison with that characteristic of the equilibrium behind the wave, a factor that significantly accelerates the chemical reaction between O₂ and H₂ behind the front. The effect is a consequence of the formation of a specific translational nonequilibrium in the wave front. A previously performed numerical study of the distributions of pairs of O₂ and Xe molecules in the shock wave front shows that this effect can be enhanced by decreasing the Xe concentration from 0.5 to 0.25%. The experiment performed indirectly confirms this conclusion. It turns out that, for the mixture with 0.25% Xe, the detonation threshold shifts more strongly to the region of weaker shock waves than for the mixture with 0.5% Xe. This result gives additional arguments in favor of the assumption that this effect is due to the specifics of the translational nonequilibrium in the wave front.