Numerical Investigation on the Transient Ignition Behavior Using CFD-DEM Approach

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Numerical investigation on the transient ignition

behavior using CFD-DEM approach
a a
Cheng Cheng & Xiaobing Zhang
a
School of Energy and Power Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology,
Nanjing, 210094, China
Accepted author version posted online: 17 Jun 2014.
To cite this article: Cheng Cheng & Xiaobing Zhang (2014): Numerical investigation on the transient ignition behavior using
CFD-DEM approach, Combustion Science and Technology, DOI: 10.1080/00102202.2014.907796
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00102202.2014.907796
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Numerical investigation on the transient ignition

behavior using CFD-DEM approach
Cheng Cheng and Xiaobing Zhang ∗
School of Energy and Power Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology,
Nanjing, 210094, China
ABSTRACT
Downloaded by [134.117.10.200] at 11:29 21 June 2014
To consider the effects of dynamic collision during the ignition process, numerical simulations
based on the CFD-DEM (Computational Fluid Dynamic-Discrete Element Method) approach are
carried out for studying the gas-solid transient ignition behavior in guns. The motion of
individual particles is modeled by DEM, tracking the dynamic collision process of particles and
predicting the dynamic collision phenomena at the individual particle scale. The gas motion is
described by the continuum flow, taking into account detailed grain combustion, particle-particle
collisions, particle-wall collisions, interphase drag and heat transfer between the gas and solid
phases. A parameter study including particle size, particle escape, initial pressure of primer,
∗
Corresponding author at: Xiaolingwei 200#, Nanjing 210094, Jiangsu, PR China. Tel: +86 25 84303167; Fax: +86
25 84314960
Email:chengcheny@gmail.com(C. Cheng), zhangxb680504@163.com (X. B. Zhang)
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initial particle bed height, rupture pressure of holes and randomness on the ignition phase are
investigated. The randomness of vent holes opening closely linked with the particle distribution,
particle collision and combustion process is evidently shown. There is mutual restriction between
different factors and the perfect ignition performance can not be obtained by changing one or
two factors. Simulation results show a deeper understanding of ignition processes including
combustion, flame spreading, pressure wave developing and particle collisions. A further guide
for optimization of the igniter design is provided by the parameter study on ignition
performance. This paper puts forward a new prediction tool for the understanding and design of
transient ignition process in guns.
Keywords: Ignition behavior, Two-phase flow, Interior ballistic, CFD-DEM
1. Introduction
Modern warfare requires interior ballistics (IB) researchers to design and develop
high-performance gun systems. The search for improvement of gun performance by means of
higher loading densities often leads to the occurrence of unexpected pressure waves which in turn
may be the cause of gun ammunition malfunctions such as breech blows, ballistic variability,
projectile premature, etc. (Porterie and Loraud, 1994). The source of this phenomenon was
correctly identified as lying in the ignition phase of the interior ballistic cycle (Acharya, 2009;
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Woodley, 2001; Catiolica and Klein, 1987; Andersen and Stillman, 1983). Therefore, an adequate
knowledge of the ignition phase is of key importance for better performance of interior ballistic.
Most of the large and medium caliber guns using cased ammunition currently are ignited with a
center core tube positioned along the axis of the propelling charge, see Fig. 1 and the detailed
schematic of the igniter (center core tube) is shown in Fig.1(b). Ignition process in guns is well
known as a special chemical engineering problem. It involves many complex physical and
chemical processes during the transient period such as gas-solid interaction, combustion, particle
collisions and so on (Yuan and Zhang, 2005; Markator, 1986; Sheu and Lee, 1995; Nussbaum and
Helluy, 2006). The hot gases produced by the ignition of the primer heat and subsequently ignite
the black powder in the tube. When the pressure in the tube reaches a rupture pressure, the holes on
the surface start to break and the hot combustion products discharge through holes. The
combustion products from the ignition of black powder comprise of both gas phase and
condensed-phase products. Once the pressure at the shot base is greater than the initial resistive
pressure, the projectile begins to move.
The interaction between the igniter and propellant exerts a profound influence on the
performance of a gun charge. The main reason responsible for pressure wave development in large
and medium caliber gun charges is uneven ignition due to an unsuitable igniter design. Although
the geometry of tube and the location of the vent holes are designed to provide even distribution of
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the hot gases/particles flowing through the propellant bed, experimental evidence shows that this
is not always achieved. Moreover, experimental analysis of ignition behavior in guns is frequently
restricted by the expensive cost, practical conditions and a series of errors may occur during the
testing. Numerical simulation is a useful tool to obtain detailed information on the transient
gas-solid flow without disturbing the flow field. Therefore, the design of the igniter tube is always
based on the numerical simulation results and the experience of designers.

Nowadays the gas-solid flow model is widely used in the study on interior ballistics such as
igniter tube design, flame spreading in the chamber, launch safety and so on (Baer and Nunziato,
1986; Gough and Zwarts, 1979; Acharya and Kuo, 2010; Woodley et al., 2005). In summary,
numerical simulations have been calculated by using two types of theoretical models, the Eulerian
two-fluid model (Houim and Kuo, 2010; Jaramaz et al., 2011; Woodley et al., 2005) and the
Lagrangian trajectory model (Kuo et al., 1984; Gough, 1995; Nusca and Conroy, 2002; Miura et
al., 2008; Jang et al., 2013). Some studies on the ignition process also have been done by our group
using both the two-fluid model and the trajectory model (Zhang et al., 1998; Zhang and Wang,
2010; Cheng and Zhang, 2012; Ma and Zhang, 2013; Cheng and Zhang, 2013). Unfortunately,
only a macroscopic two-phase description can be provided in all the above works, the
micro-dynamic behavior of particles at the individual particle level were neglected.
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As a more natural calculating way by tracking individual particles to simulate gas-solid flow,
DEM has developed rapidly in the last two decades (Cundall and Strack, 1979). In the combined
computational fluid dynamics and discrete element method (CFD-DEM), particles are modeled as
a discrete phase, described by Newton’s laws of motion on an individual particle scale and
collisions are considered, while the gas phase is treated as a continuum, described by the local
averaged Navier-Stokes equations on a computational cell scale (Tsuji et al., 1993). Interphase
interaction terms or detailed submodels are used to model interactions between the two phases
such as interphase drag, heat transfer, etc. This method has been recognized as an effective method
to study two-phase flow under different conditions by various investigators (Tsuji et al., 1993;
Langston et al., 1995; Gera et al., 1998; Kafui et al., 2002; Takeuchi et al., 2004; Tsuji, 2007;
Chen et al., 2012; Zhong et al., 2007; Ren et al., 2012; Ren et al., 2013; Zhu et al., 2008).
However, the CFD-DEM simulation of ignition behavior study has largely lagged behind, there
has been no information concerning such a method to ignition behavior study so far.
In this study, we perform CFD-DEM simulations to study the ignition behavior at a micro-scale.
It aims at better understanding the ignition phase in guns and describing the mathematical models
more accurately. The study focuses on investigating the effects of different conditions including
particle size, particle escape, initial ignition pressure from the primer, initial particle bed height,
rupture pressure of holes and randomness on the ignition phase. Finally some discussions and
recommendations are given to improve the ignition performance.
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2. Computational models
Details of the theoretical model have been given in our previous work (Cheng and Zhang, 2013)
and only a very brief summary is presented here. This coupled CFD-DEM model has been verified
by a test device and some standard test cases. In addition, some submodels are added in our
previous model to consider the particle escape and the randomness of particles in this study.
2.1. Particle phase
The particle movement in a gas flow is caused not only by particle-particle or particle-wall
contact forces but also by interphase forces such as the drag force, Saffman lift force, Magnus
force, Basset force, etc. In this study, only contact forces and the drag force are considered. The
translational and the rotational motion of a particle are described by Newton’s second law, and
given by
dV p kc
mp =
dt
∑F
i =1
c + fs (1)
dω
I = ∑ Ti , j (2)
dt
where m p is the mass of particle, Fc is the contact force， kc is the number of contacting
particles， f s is the particle-fluid interphase drag, V p and ω are the translational and rotational
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velocities of the particle, I is the moment of inertia, Ti , j is the torque between particles i and
j.
2.1.1. Contact force
The contact forces between two particles can be obtained by the linear spring-damper model
proposed by Cundall and Strack (Cundall and Strack, 1979). The particle-particle contact forces,
namely the normal, damping and sliding forces, act on the two particles. Particle-wall contact
forces are modeled in the soft sphere model using mechanical elements like springs, dash-pots,
sliders.
The contact force Fc acting on a particle j due to contact with particle i is expressed as
Fc Fcn ,ij + Fct ,ij

= (3)
The normal component of the contact force Fcn ,ij is given as
−knδ nn − cn (Vij • n ) n
Fcn ,ij = (4)
The tangential component of the contact force Fct ,ij is given as
Fct ,ij =−ktδ t n − ct (Vij × n ) × n (5)
The sliding condition is provided by Coulomb’s friction law, and the tangential force is given by
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 Fct ,ij , Fct ,ij < µ s Fcn ,ij
Fct ,ij =  (6)
 µ s Fcn ,ij , Fct ,ij ≥ µ s Fcn ,ij
where kn , kt , cn , ct are the spring and dashpot coefficients in the normal and tangential directions,
δ n , δ t are the particle displacements in the normal and tangential directions, Vij is the slip
velocity, µ s is the maximum static friction coefficient, n is the unit vector from the center of
particle i to particle j .
Also, the torque acting on a particle due to particle-particle contacts is expressed as
Ti , j ri , j n × Fct ,ij
= (7)
2.1.2. Interphase Drag
A drag force model based on the Anderssen law for a fluidized bed is used to calculate the
interphase drag. The drag f s on an individual particle is given by
1−ϕ
f=
s Vi Vg − Vp ( Vg − Vp ) ρ g C f (8)
dp
where ρ g is the gas density, Vg is the gas velocity, Vp is the particle velocity, Vi is the volume of
each particle, d p is the equivalent diameter, ϕ is the porosity, C f is an empirical coefficient.
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1.75 0 < ϕ ≤ ϕ0

C f 1.75 ( (1 − ϕ ) ϕ0 ) ( (1 − ϕ ) ϕ )
0.45
= 0 ϕ0 < ϕ < ϕ1 (9)

0.3 ϕ1 ≤ ϕ ≤ 1
1 − ϕ0
where ϕ1= [1 + 0.02 ]−1 ， ϕ0 is the settling porosity.
ϕ0
2.1.3. Surface temperature of particle

Using a quasi-steady assumption, we can obtain the surface temperature of a solid grain from the
following expression.
dTps
=
2q a p ( t +δt − t ) (10)
dt λp π δt
where q is the heat transfer per volume, λ p is the thermal conductivity of a particle, a p is the
coefficient of temperature conductivity, t is the total reaction time, and δ t is the time step.
2.1.4. Particle combustion
When the solid propellant surface temperature reaches the assumed ignition temperature, the
particle starts burning. An empirical burning law is used in the associated burning rate
calculations. The production rate of gases per particle is shown as following
mc = bp n ρ p S p (11)
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where b , n are constants for a given propellant material and S p is the current surface area of
the grain, ρ p is the particle density.
2.1.5 Interphase heat
The convective heat transfer can be given
qc hc (Tg − Tps )
= (12)
where qc is the heat flux due to convection per unit of surface, hc is the convective heat transfer
coefficient, Tg and Tps are the temperature of gas and solid grain surface.
Based on the Stefan-Boltzmann law, the radiant heat transfer can be written as following
=qr ε pσ (Tg4 − Tps4 ) (13)
where qr is the heat flux due to radiation per unit of surface, ε p is the emissivity and σ is the
Stefan-Boltzmann constant.
The net interphase heat transfer is written as
q=
p qr + qc (14)
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2.2. Gas phase
The gas phase is modeled as a continuum, which is described by a set of volume averaged Euler
equations with source terms. The governing equations for the gas-phase flow consist of mass,
momentum and energy conservation equations.
The mass conservation equation of the gas phase:
∂ (ϕρ g )
+ ∇ ⋅ (ϕρ g Vg ) = mc (15)
∂t
The momentum conservation equation of gas phase:
∂ (ϕρ g Vg )
+ ∇ ⋅ (ϕρ g Vg Vg ) = −ϕ∇p − Fpg + M cp (16)
∂t
The energy conservation equation of the gas phase:
∂ (ϕρ g Eg )   p  ∂ϕ
+ ∇ ⋅  ϕρ g Vg  Eg +  + p = −Q p − WFpg + Ecp (17)
∂t   ρ  ∂t
  g 
In the above equations, ϕ is the volume fraction of the gas phase, ρ g is the gas density, Vg is the
gas velocity, p is the gas pressure, Eg = eg + Vg ⋅ Vg / 2 is the total energy of the gas phase, eg is
the internal energy of the gas phase, mc is the mass generation rate of gas due to propellant
combustion, Fpg is the interphase drag per unit volume, M cp is the added momentum due to the
gas production, Q p is the interphase heat transfer due to conduction and radiation per unit volume,
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WFpg is the work done by the interphase drag, Ecp is the added energy due to the decomposition of
the solid phase.
2.3. Equation of state
The ideal gas equation of state (EOS) is accurate providing that (1) the average intermolecular
spacing or mean free path of the gas is very large compared to the size of the gas molecules, and (2)
intermolecular forces are weak. For many practical flow regimes both of these assumptions are
true. However, the ideal gas EOS is inaccurate due to the high gas densities while combusting in
the chamber. The Noble-Abel equation provides a simple and reasonably accurate EOS for
propellant gases at the high densities and temperatures in guns.
p (1 ρg − β ) =
RTg (18)
where R is the specific gas constant, Tg is the gas temperature. The co-volume β compensates
for the finite volume occupied by the gas molecules.
3. Numerical methods
Numerical methods for the established two-dimensional CFD-DEM reacting flow model have
been described in detail in our previous studies. Some particular verifications were used to test the
CFD and DEM code. Simulation of an igniter test device in open air shows excellent agreement
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between numerical simulation and experimental measurements (Cheng and Zhang, 2013). Here
only a very brief summary is presented and Monte Carlo methods for particle distribution and size
are given in details.
For the DEM part, the direct mapping contact detection algorithm is firstly used to detect collisions
between particle and particle or particle and wall. The translational and rotational motions of
discrete particles are solved by explicit time integrations (Munjiza, 2004) to obtain the position
and velocity of particles. Then based on the multi-grid technique which is shown in Fig. 2, the void
fraction in each computational grid is estimated based on the particle positions. Also, mass,
momentum and energy source terms are added to the discrete control volume in which the particle
resides. Next, the ﬂow ﬁeld of the gas-phase is solved by the CFD solver, which is based on the
AUSM+-up scheme (Liou, 2006) with the higher order accurate reconstruction method. This
procedure will be iterated until the calculation is finished.
Monte Carlo method is used to obtain the particle distribution and size. This method relies on
repeated random sampling to obtain numerical results by running simulations many times over in
order to calculate those same probabilities (Kroese et al., 2011).
If ξ1 and ξ 2 are independent variables with each other and obey the even distribution, there are:
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x1= −2 ln ξ1 cos ( 2πξ 2 ) 

 (19)
x2= −2 ln ξ1 sin ( 2πξ 2 ) 
It can be proven that x1 and x2 are independently random variables, which obey a standard
normal distribution. ξ1 and ξ 2 can be also written as follows:
 1 2 
ξ1 = exp  −
 2
( x1 + x22 )  

 (20)
1 −1  x2  
ξ2 = tan  
2π x
 1 

According to the probability density of two-dimensional random variables, its Jacob formula is
∂ (ξ1 , ξ 2 ) 1 − 12 ( x12 + x22 )

J= = − e (21)
∂ ( x1 , x2 ) 2π
Because ξ1 and ξ 2 are evenly distributed variables in the zone [ 0,1] , the probability density of
random variables ( x1 , x2 ) is
2 2
1 − 12 ( x12 + x22 ) 1 − x21 1 − x22
( x1 , x2 )
g= e
= e ⋅ e (22)
2π 2π 2π
Obviously, x1 and x2 are independent random variables obeying the distribution N ( 0,1) 。
For multi-dimensional random variables ( y1 , y2 , , yn ) and with mean values ( µ1 , µ2 , , µn ) ，
its covariance matrix is
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 k11 k12  k1n 

k k22  k2 n 
Σ =  21 (23)
   
 
 kn1 kn 2  knn 
where
kij = E ( yi − µi ) ( y j − µ j ) 
From matrix theory, Σ can be written as following:

Σ= C ⋅ C T (24)
 y1   c11 0  0   x1   µ1 
y  c  0   x2   µ2 
 2  21 c22 +
          
      
 yn   cn1 cn 2  cnn   xn   µn 
(25)
Taking random numbers generated by Eq. (25) into the DEM model, the random particle
distribution and particle size can be obtained.
4. Results and discussions
4.1. Flow behavior of ignition phase in the igniter tube
The simulated igniter tube in this paper is similar to the scheme in Fig.1(b) and the sketch map of
igniter size is shown in Fig.3. It has an inside diameter D of 16mm and length L of 497mm. There
are 15(rows) ×4=60 holes on the surface of second half of tube. The initial bed height h is 0.9 times
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the length of tube L. The height of holes in the first row L0 is 0.5 times the length of tube L.
Detailed physical and numerical parameters are summarized in Table 1. The initial gas
temperature and pressure are 300K and 0.1013MPa respectively (ambient); the values for the
igniter region are given by the experimental data.Fig.4 and Fig.5 presents the pressure
distributions in the igniter at different times. The detailed development of the pressure wave during
the whole ignition phase is shown clearly. The early phase of the development of pressure wave
are shown in Fig. 4. The pressure waves travel from the burned region towards the unburned
region. With the propagation of the pressure wave, a rarefaction wave is formed and travels
towards the bottom of the igniter, which is shown in Fig. 4(d). The latter phase of the development
of pressure wave are shown in Fig. 5. In Fig. 5(a), when the vent holes start to rupture, the pressure
in the region of the vent holes has a slight drop. But the over trend of pressure gradient continues to
increase. The pressure starts to decay gradually and the pressure distributions in the igniter are
approximately uniform except in the region of vent holes, which is shown in Fig 5(b)-(d). The
pressure differences between each holes are caused by the different rupturing time of holes. It also
make the non-uniform mass flow rate to degrade the ignition performance.
Fig.6 shows the pressure-time curves at different location. As mentioned in the introduction part,
the discharge of high pressure and high temperature combustion products from the igniter tube
contain both the gas-phase and solid-phase species and these combustion products heat the
propellants in the chamber. Fig. 6 also shows the effect of whether the solid-phase products are
allowed to be discharged. The ignition strength increases when considering the solid-phase
products discharge.
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The gas temperature distributions in Fig. 7 show the detailed flame propagation process. The flame
spreads from the bottom to the top of the tube. It also has similar distributions to the pressure
distributions in Fig. 4. Locations of the pressure front and flame front at different times are shown
in Fig 8. The pressure front always runs ahead of the flame front. Because the particle in a region
where the pressure front reach can not be ignited immediately and it must go through a process of
heat transfer by hot gas.

Fig. 9 presents the distributions of the gas velocity vector at different times. A strong 2-D effect
and the gas flow field is described clearly in Fig. 9. Hot combustion gases flow from the bottom to
the top of the tube driven by pressure, see the detailed view of the rectangular region A in Fig. 9.
When the pressure reaches a rupture pressure, the holes on the surface start to break and the hot
combustion products discharge through holes, see in Fig. 9(b). From the detailed view of the
rectangular regioin B in Fig. 9, we can see that some holes between those which have opened do
not break. This will cause a non-uniform ignition and the detailed reason will be discussed in the
next section. After all vent holes open, combustion products keep on flowing through the vent
holes until the pressure balance. The detailed view of the rectangular region C in Fig. 9 shows the
non-uniform mass flow rate from different vent holes and holes at the top of the tube have larger
mass flow rate than others.
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The particle velocity vector distributions at different times are shown in Fig. 10. It shows not only
the velocity vector of each particle but also the size and position of each particle. At the beginning
of the combustion process, the particles move from the bottom of the igniter towards the top of the
igniter, see in Fig. 10(a) and the detailed view of region A. During this process, collisions between
particles are constantly occurring. From the detailed view of region B in Fig 10(b), particles at the
bottom of the tube are still moving towards the vent holes region but have bigger velocities. Some
particles at the top of the tube rebound due to collisions between the particles and the wall and
cluster is shown at the top of tube from the detailed view of region C in Fig. 10(b). This cluster is
the reason why holes at the top of the tube have larger mass flow rate than others which is shown in
Fig. 9. Another cluster is also found in the vent holes region because of the discharging of
combustion products through vent holes, see the detailed view of region D in Fig. 10(c). These
collisions and clustering are some of the biggest differences between our CFD-DEM approach and
other interior ballistic two-phase models.
Fig.11 presents the trajectory of a particle. This particle moves from the bottom of the igniter
towards the top of the igniter by interphase drag. Because of the particle collisions, a disordered
trajectory is also shown at some time. The percentage of collided particles with time are presented
in Fig. 12. It is noted that fewer collided particles exist at the beginning. With the development of
the pressure propagation and particle movements, the percentage of particle-particle and
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particle-wall collisions increases. Particle fracture which causes the abnormal pressure in the
igniter usually happens during this period. This abnormal pressure also is one of the main
influence factors of the ignition behavior.
4.2. Effects of various factors on ignition performance
4.2.1. Effect of initial ignition pressure from the primer

According to the description of ignition process, we know that the ignition process starts from the
primer combustion which provides the initial ignition pressure in the igniter. The effect of the
initial pressure of the primer is studied by increasing pressure from 1MPa to 5MPa. Values for
other parameters are the same as those in Table 1. Rupture time distributions of holes at different
initial ignition pressure from the primer are shown in Fig. 13. Statistics of rupture time
distributions of holes at different initial ignition pressure are listed in Table 2. Under the same
condition, it is obvious that increasing the initial ignition pressure from the primer can decrease the
overall rupture time. And more importantly, it can also improve the uniformity of rupture time
distributions of holes and the ignition performance.
Fig.14 presents locations of pressure front at different times and different initial ignition pressure.
Pressure-time curves at the location 1/5 L and different initial ignition pressure is shown in Fig.15.
The spreading speed of the pressure wave increases with the initial ignition pressure. It also leads
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to a decrease in the ignition delay which will improve the ignition performance. Increasing the
initial ignition pressure can not obviously increase ignition strength. Statistics of percentage of
collided particles at different initial ignition pressure is listed in Table 3. It is noted that the mean
and maximum percentage of collided particles increases with the initial ignition pressure. The
percentage of fractured particles may increase to cause abnormal ignition. Hence the initial
ignition pressure from the primer must be chosen in a suitable range.

4.2.2. Effect of initial particle bed height
Fig. 16 shows rupture time distributions of holes at different initial particle bed height by
increasing relative height from 0.8 h/L to 1.0 h/L. The initial bed height h is the distance from the
bottom of the igniter tube to the initial loading height of the bed where particles exist. Values for
other parameters are the same as that in Table.1. Statistics of rupture time distributions of holes at
different initial particle bed height are listed in Table 4. It can be observed that the overall rupture
time increases with the initial particle bed height. Also the uniformity of rupture time distributions
of holes is influenced by increasing the initial particle bed height.
The locations of the pressure front at different times and different initial bed height are shown in
Fig. 17. The pressure-time curves at 1/5 L and different initial bed height are shown in Fig.18. The
spreading speed of pressure wave increases with the decrease of initial bed height. Increasing the
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initial bed height can not obviously increase ignition strength. Statistics of percentage of collided
particles at different initial ignition pressure are listed in Table 5. It is obvious that the mean and
maximum percentage of collided particles increases with the decrease of initial bed height. This is
because the loading density will increase with the decrease of initial bed height and cause more
energy release to raise the pressure. In addition, more particles will be accumulated at the tube-end
zone to cause a strong compression. This is not desirable. So the initial particle bed height is
important to improve the ignition performance.
4.2.3. Effect of the particle size
Obviously, not only the particle distribution but also the particle size can influence the ignition
performance. The effect of the particle size is studied in Fig. 19-21 and Table 6-7. With the
increase of the particle size, the overall rupture time decreases, the pressure rises and the
percentage of collided particles increases. The influence of regularity to ignition performance is
described as above. But when the web thickness 2e1=3.0mm, not all holes rupture. This has a
strong impact on the ignition performance.
Actually, particle sizes can not be strictly the same. Fig. 22 shows the square map of random
particle size (the mean diameter = 4mm, the standard variance =0.013mm). Rupture time
distributions of holes for a random particle size is shown in Fig. 23. It is obvious that the
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uniformity of rupture time distributions of holes decreases with the increase of the standard
variance of random particle size. Hence, the particle size needs to be the same or have small
variance.
4.2.4. Effect of the rupture pressure of holes
The rupture pressure determines the time when the holes open and it is also one of the main factors
in the igniter design. Fig. 24 presents the rupture time distributions of holes by increasing the
rupture pressure from 15MPa to 25MPa. The overall rupture time increases and the uniformity of
rupture time distributions decreases with the rupture pressure increasing. The locations of the first
rupture holes travel towards the bottom of the igniter. The pressure-time curves at 1/5 L and
different rupture pressure of holes is shown in Fig. 25. Before the holes rupture, the spreading
speed of pressure wave is same. The maximum pressure in the igniter tube increases with the
rupture pressure, and the ignition strength is said to increase. This is a contradiction between the
ignition uniformity and ignition strength.
4.3 Discussion and Recommendations
It is generally thought that the region where vent holes open firstly is close to the primer. But from
the different simulations above, most of the vent holes open firstly in the region close to the end of
the igniter. The particle distribution shown in Fig. 10, obviously shows a strong packing of
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particles at the end of the igniter driven there by the combustion gas. The packing will also cause a
rapid pressure rise and the mass flow rates from the vent holes increase in this region accordingly,
which is shown in Fig. 26. This is one of the main factors to cause the non-uniformity of ignition.
Moreover, the randomness of vent holes opening is evidently shown in different schemes of the
igniter which is discussed above. This randomness is closely linked with the particle distribution,
particle collision and combustion process.

Through the above discussion of various factors affecting ignition performance, there is mutual
restriction between different factors and the perfect ignition performance can not be obtained by
changing one or two factors. Therefore, before the igniter is designed, a parametric study on
ignition performance is particularly important for optimization of the igniter design. It was
demonstrated that a numerical code using the CFD-DEM approach can be used to provide
guidance for performance improvement of engineering design by the in-depth analysis of igniter
tube.
5. Conclusions
Numerical simulations based on the CFD-DEM approach are carried out for studying the transient
behavior of an ignition process in guns. The motion of individual particle is modeled by DEM, to
track the dynamic collision process of particles and predict dynamic collision phenomena at the
individual particle scale. Gas motion is described by the continuum flow, taking into account
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detailed grain combustion, particle-particle collisions, particle-wall collisions, interphase drag and
heat transfer between the gas and solid phases.
In addition，a parametric study on ignition performance is discussed. The uniformity of rupture
time distributions of holes increases with initial ignition pressure from the primer and particle size,
and decreases with increasing initial bed height and rupture pressure of holes. The ignition strength
obviously increases with rupture pressure of holes and particle size. Moreover, the particle-particle
collisions are the major collisions which happened in the ignition process. Driven by combustion
gas, a strong packing of particles at the end of the igniter will cause the non-uniformity of ignition.
Finally the randomness of vent holes opening is evidently shown. This randomness is closely
linked with the particle distribution, particle collision and combustion process. There is mutual
restriction between different factors and the perfect ignition performance can not be obtained by
changing one or two factors. A parametric study on ignition performance is particularly important
for optimization of the igniter design. Simulation of the igniter tube by the CFD-DEM approach
can be helpful to acquire a deeper understanding of the ignition processes and this approach can
therefore be used as an assessment tool for future igniter design studies.
Furthermore, although the code has been developed for analyzing different influence factors of the
igniter, an optimization design function needs to be added to provide a suggested design plan for
performance improvement. This is the future direction for this work.
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Acknowledgements
This work is supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (Grant No.
BK20131348) and Key Laboratory Foundation of the People's Republic of China (Grant No.
9140C300206120C30110).
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Table 1 Input parameters for simulation
Parameter Value
Black powder mass (kg) 0.080
Black powder density (kg/m3) 1600

Black powder impetus(J/kg) 300000
Average diameter of black powder 4
(mm)
Surface temperature for ignition(K) 600
Normal spring constant (N/m) 800
Tangential spring constant (N/m) 800
Normal damping coefficient 0.5
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Tangential damping coefficient 0.5
Friction coefficient 0.3
Initial pressure of primer (MPa) 1
rupture pressure of holes(MPa) 20

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Table 2 Statistics of rupture time distributions of holes at different initial ignition pressure
Standard Minimum Maximum

Mean Time(ms)
deviation Time(ms) Time(ms)
1MPa 1.90 0.07 1.81 2.17

3MPa 1.85 0.06 1.79 2.03
5MPa 1.80 0.05 1.77 1.94
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Table 3 Statistics of percentage of collided particles at different initial ignition pressure
Mean percentage (%) Maximum percentage (%)
1MPa 7.1 24.4
3MPa 7.8 27.7

5MPa 9.2 30.1
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Table 4 Statistics of rupture time distributions of holes at different initial bed height
Mean Standard Minimum Maximum

h/L
Time(ms) deviation Time(ms) Time(ms)
0.8 1.78 0.07 1.68 1.96

0.9 1.90 0.07 1.81 2.17
1.0 2.30 0.16 2.10 2.64
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Table 5 Statistics of percentage of collided particles at different bed height
Mean percentage (%) Maximum percentage (%)
0.8h/L 7.5 34.3
0.9h/L 7.1 24.4

1.0h/L 5.6 20.6
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Table 6 Statistics of rupture time distributions of holes at different particle size
Mean Standard Minimum Maximum
Time(ms) deviation Time(ms) Time(ms)
4.0 mm 1.90 0.07 1.81 2.17

3.5 mm 3.16 0.20 2.96 3.58
3.0 mm 3.83 0.07 3.80 4.13
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Table 7 Statistics of percentage of collided particles at different particle size
2e1 Mean percentage (%) Maximum percentage (%)
3.0mm 2.4 15.3
3.5mm 5.6 21.1

4.0mm 7.1 24.4
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Fig.1 The schematic of a typical launch system: (a) propelling charges with igniter; (b) detailed
schematic of the igniter
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Fig. 2 Interconnection of Multi-grids
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Fig.3 The sketch map of igniter size
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Fig. 4 Pressure distributions at different times before venting
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Fig. 5 Pressure distributions at different times after venting
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Fig. 6 Pressure-time curves at different location
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Fig. 7 Gas temperature distributions at different times
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Fig.8 Locations of pressure front and flame front at different times（a）pressure front （b）flame
front
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Fig. 9 Gas velocity vector distributions at different times
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Fig. 10 Particle velocity vector distributions at different times
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Fig. 11 Trajectory of a particle
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Fig. 12 Percentage of collided particles with time
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Fig. 13 Rupture time distributions of holes at different initial ignition pressure
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Fig. 14 Locations of pressure front at different times and different initial ignition pressure
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Fig. 15 Pressure-time curves at the location 1/5 L and different initial ignition pressure
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Fig. 16 Rupture time distributions of holes at different initial bed height
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Fig. 17 Locations of pressure front at different times and different initial bed height
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Fig. 18 Pressure-time curves at the location 1/5 L and different initial bed height
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Fig. 19 Rupture time distributions of holes at different particle size
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Fig. 20 Locations of pressure front at different times and different particle size
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Fig. 21 Pressure-time curves at the location 1/5 L and different particle size
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Fig. 22 Square map of random particle size
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Fig. 23 Rupture time distributions of holes at different standard variance of random particle size
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Fig. 24 Rupture time distributions of holes at different rupture pressure of holes
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Fig. 25 Pressure-time curves at the location 1/5 L and different rupture pressure of holes
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Fig. 26 Description of the strong compression at the end of tube
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Numerical Investigation on the Transient Ignition Behavior Using CFD-DEM Approach

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Numerical Investigation on the Transient Ignition Behavior Using CFD-DEM Approach

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Combustion Science and Technology

Numerical investigation on the transient ignition

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00102202.2014.907796

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Numerical investigation on the transient ignition

Email:chengcheny@gmail.com(C. Cheng), zhangxb680504@163.com (X. B. Zhang)

transient ignition process in guns.

Keywords: Ignition behavior, Two-phase flow, Interior ballistic, CFD-DEM

pressure, the projectile begins to move.

based on the numerical simulation results and the experience of designers.

micro-dynamic behavior of particles at the individual particle level were neglected.

recommendations are given to improve the ignition performance.

2.1. Particle phase

2.1.1. Contact force

Fc Fcn ,ij + Fct ,ij

The normal component of the contact force Fcn ,ij is given as

The tangential component of the contact force Fct ,ij is given as

Fct ,ij =−ktδ t n − ct (Vij × n ) × n (5)

Also, the torque acting on a particle due to particle-particle contacts is expressed as

2.1.2. Interphase Drag

interphase drag. The drag f s on an individual particle is given by

each particle, d p is the equivalent diameter, ϕ is the porosity, C f is an empirical coefficient.

2.1.3. Surface temperature of particle

2.1.4. Particle combustion

calculations. The production rate of gases per particle is shown as following

the grain, ρ p is the particle density.

2.1.5 Interphase heat

The convective heat transfer can be given

=qr ε pσ (Tg4 − Tps4 ) (13)

The net interphase heat transfer is written as

2.2. Gas phase

momentum and energy conservation equations.

The mass conservation equation of the gas phase:

The momentum conservation equation of gas phase:

The energy conservation equation of the gas phase:

the solid phase.

2.3. Equation of state

propellant gases at the high densities and temperatures in guns.

for the finite volume occupied by the gas molecules.

are given in details.

procedure will be iterated until the calculation is finished.

order to calculate those same probabilities (Kroese et al., 2011).

x1= −2 ln ξ1 cos ( 2πξ 2 ) 

normal distribution. ξ1 and ξ 2 can be also written as follows:

∂ (ξ1 , ξ 2 ) 1 − 12 ( x12 + x22 )

For multi-dimensional random variables ( y1 , y2 , , yn ) and with mean values ( µ1 , µ2 , , µn ) ，

its covariance matrix is

 k11 k12  k1n 

From matrix theory, Σ can be written as following:

distribution and particle size can be obtained.

4. Results and discussions

4.1. Flow behavior of ignition phase in the igniter tube

heat transfer by hot gas.

mass flow rate than others.

other interior ballistic two-phase models.

influence factors of the ignition behavior.

4.2. Effects of various factors on ignition performance

4.2.1. Effect of initial ignition pressure from the primer

distributions of holes and the ignition performance.

ignition pressure from the primer must be chosen in a suitable range.

4.2.2. Effect of initial particle bed height

of holes is influenced by increasing the initial particle bed height.

important to improve the ignition performance.