The detonation paradox
Discoveries are best made when trying to solve paradoxes. And there is such a paradox in detonation theory - which has stalled progress in the last 20 years. Current simulations of inviscid detonations predict the incorrect trends for detonation limits. Simply put, simulations cannot predict experiments unless one uses the poor numerical resolution available to researchers of the 1980-1990's. The evidence points to the lack of dissipation in Euler models, effects which would otherwise account for burning of large amounts of gas on time scales relevant to the detonation propagation. Of course, other culprits may participate: incorrect knowledge of chemical rates and relaxation rates behind the non-steady shocks of detonations, three-dimensional effects absent in 2D simulations, etc... The paradox is ongoing. My paper summarizes this paradox. I now bitterly remember having attempted to publish the results of simulations showing this effect back in 2006 for the combust...