Detonation failure diameters and detonation velocities of nitric acid, acetic acid and water mixtures

Abstract Detonation failure experiments and detonation velocity measurements were carried out with homogeneous liquid compositions of nitric acid, acetic acid and water contained in steel tubes with different diameters. The criterion for failure or propagation of detonation was based upon the type of damage exhibited by the tubes after the experiments. Mixtures with the same critical diameter were determined by varying the composition in experiments performed in a set of tubes with the same diameter. These results were used to construct iso-critical diameter curves in the ternary diagram of the system of mixtures. The critical diameters were found to be strongly dependent on the mass fraction of water and the equivalence ratio. The detonation velocity measurements were performed on some oxygen - balanced mixtures contained in tubes with different diameters. The Detonation Velocities versus the Inverse of Tube Diameter curves were found to be linear, their slopes increasing with the mass fraction of water. The detonation velocities were found to be in the range 6000–6400 m/s.