In: Physics
Can an inert gas in a detention situation be used to “dampen” a sharp peak in detonation pressure and convert that peak into a more sustained pressure building?
Damping by inert gas is directly proportional to the molecular mass of inert gas.
Damping by inert gas is inversely proportional to the specific heat. One should consider specific heat at constant volume here as pressure will varying.
Since molecular mass is constant, the height of peak will be reduced proportional to the molecular mass.
There is an increase in temperature during detonation of pressure.
specific heat depends on temperature by the following relation :
Increase in temperature difference, decreases the specific heat and indeed increases the damping.
the temperature variation is as in the graph:
:
we can see that the temperature difference is not constant but decreases with time and so the damping will also not be linear (will not be just reduction in peak height) but will result in to sustained pressure buildup.