Simulations of flame acceleration and deflagration-to-detonation transitions in methane-air systems

Flame acceleration and deflagration-to-detonation transitions (DDT) in large obstructed channels filled with a stoichiometric methane-air mixture are simulated using a single-step reaction mechanism. The reaction parameters are calibrated using known velocities and length scales of laminar flames and detonations. Calculations of the flame dynamics and DDT in channels with obstacles are compared to previously reported experimental data. The results obtained using the simple reaction model qualitatively, and in many cases, quantitatively match the experiments and are found to be largely insensitive to small variations in model parameters.