Abstract
IT has been shown by Kistiakowsky et al.1,2 that the velocities of plane detonation waves in the steady state in gaseous mixtures contained in straight tubes are influenced by the energy losses to the walls of the tube. For tubes the diameters of which are less than 10 cm., the velocities are found to decrease with decreasing diameter; this effect is attributed to the formation at the wall of the tube of the rarefaction wave, which travels inwards with acoustic velocity, thereby causing a lowering of temperature and the rate of chemical reaction. Such a rarefaction can be produced by two mechanisms, namely, cooling of the gas in contact with the wall and frictional drag at the wall. The individual effects are indistinguishable experimentally.
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References
Berets, D. J., Greene, E. F., and Kistiakowsky, G. B., J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 72, 1080 (1950).
Kistiakowsky, G. B., and Zinman, W. G., Second Office of Naval Research Symposium on Detonation, 80 (1955).
Davies, R. M., Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc., A, 240, 375 (1948).
von Neumann, J., Theory of Detonation Waves, Report No. 495 (Office of Scientific Research and Development, 1942).
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EDWARDS, D., WILLIAMS, G. Effect of Tube Diameter on the Pressures in Gaseous Detonation Waves. Nature 180, 1117 (1957). https://doi.org/10.1038/1801117a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1801117a0
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