The influence of the cellular instability on lead shock evolution in weakly unstable detonation

The evolution of the normal detonation shock velocity (Dn) with local shock curvature (κ) is experimentally and numerically examined along entire evolving fronts of a weakly unstable cellular detonation cycle with the intention of extending the understanding of cellular evolution dynamics. As expected, a single velocity–curvature relation is not recovered due to the unsteady evolution of the cell. However, geometric features of the Dn–κ evolution during a cell cycle reveal some new details of the mechanisms driving cellular detonation. On the cell centerline, the local shock velocity and curvature monotonically decrease throughout the cellular cycle. Off centerline, a larger range of wavefront curvature was exhibited in expanding cells as compared to shrinking ones, indicating that most curvature variation in a detonation cell occurs near the Mach stem. In normal shock velocity–curvature space, the cell dynamics can be mapped to three features that are characteristic of (feature 1) a detonation with a spatially short reaction zone, (feature 2) a transitional regime of shock and reaction zone decoupling, and (feature 3) a diffracting inert blast wave. New, growing cells predominately exhibited features 1 and 2, while decaying cells only exhibited feature 3. The portions of all profiles with normal velocities below the Chapman–Jouguet velocity were characteristic of inert blast propagation, indicating the possibility that exceeding this velocity may be a necessary condition for the existence of shock and reaction zone coupling. In this inert blast regime, Dn and κ vary spatially across the wave front so each segment is not geometrically cylindrical, but when accumulated, the Dn–κ data map out a straight line, indicating elements of self-similar flow for each stage in the cell cycle.