Numerical Study of the Mechanisms for Initiation of Reacting Shock Waves

Experimental evidence strongly supports the role of exothermic reaction centers as robust structures of fundamental importance in both the secondary stages of transition to detonation and the initiation of detonation. Here it is demonstrated through careful high resolution numerical computation that the complete range of experimental phenomena observed in the transient behavior following the formation of a single exothermic reaction center can be found in solutions of the inviscid reactive Euler equations in a single space dimension with simplified one-step irreversible Arrhenius kinetics. Furthermore, two new mechanisms for rapid initiation of detonation through the resonant interaction of exothermic reaction centers are demonstrated.