Abstract

The present study investigates the transmission of a detonation wave across a density interface. The problem is first studied theoretically considering an incident Chapman–Jouguet (CJ) detonation wave, neglecting its detailed reaction-zone structure. It is found that, if there is a density decrease at the interface, a transmitted strong detonation wave and a reflected expansion wave would be formed; if there is a density increase, one would obtain a transmitted CJ detonation wave followed by an expansion wave and a reflected shock wave. Numerical simulations are then performed considering that the incident detonation has the Zel’dovich–von Neumann–Döring reaction-zone structure. The transient process that occurs subsequently to the detonation-interface interaction has been captured by the simulations. The effects of the magnitude of density change across the interface and different reaction kinetics (i.e., single-step Arrhenius kinetics vs. two-step induction–reaction kinetics) on the dynamics of the transmission process are explored. After the transient relaxation process, the transmitted wave reaches the final state in the new medium. For the cases with two-step induction–reaction kinetics, the transmitted wave fails to evolve to a steady detonation wave if the magnitude of density increase is greater than a critical value. For the cases wherein the transmitted wave can evolve to a steady detonation, the numerical results for both reaction models give final propagation states that agree with the theoretical solutions.