Initiation and Stabilization of Supersonic Combustion by a High-Speed Spherical Body in a Reactive Gas

Experimentally obtained shadowgraph images of the shock-wave structure of an unsteady supersonic reactive flow in a hydrogen–oxygen mixture are presented. This flow is generated by a spherical body flying through the mixture at a speed exceeding the propagation velocity of self-sustained detonation. Conditions are determined for the formation of a stabilized oblique detonation wave initiated by the high-speed body in free space and in the presence of a surface forming an internal corner, placed at a specific distance along the flight path of the body.