Highly Accurate Numerical Simulations of Pulsating One-Dimensional Detonations

A novel, highly accurate numerical scheme based on shock-fitting coupled with high order spatial and temporal discretization is applied to a classical unsteady detonation problem to generate solutions with unprecedented accuracy. The one-dimensional reactive Euler equations for a calorically perfect mixture of ideal gases whose reaction is described by single-step irreversible Arrhenius kinetics are solved in a series of calculations in which the activation energy is varied. In contrast with nearly all known simulations of this problem, which converge at a rate no greater than first order as the spatial and temporal grid is refined, the present method is shown to converge at a rate consistent with the fifth order accuracy of the spatial discretization scheme. This high accuracy enables more precise verification of known results and prediction of heretofore unknown phenomena. To five significant figures, the scheme faithfully recovers the stability boundary, growth rates, and wave-numbers predicted by an independent linear stability theory in the stable and weakly unstable regime. As the activation energy is increased, a series of period-doubling events are predicted, and the system undergoes a transition to chaos. Consistent with general theories of non-linear dynamics, the bifurcation points are seen to converge at a rate for which the Feigenbaum constant is 4.66 ± 0.09, in close agreement with the true value of 4.669201 . . .. As activation energy is increased further, domains are identified in which the system undergoes a transition from a chaotic state back to one whose limit cycles are characterized by a small number of non-linear oscillatory modes. This result is consistent with behavior of other non-linear dynamical systems, but not typically considered in detonation dynamics.