Ultra-high-speed chemiluminescence tomography of spinning-mode detonation waves

This work presents a chemiluminescence tomography campaign to reconstruct time-resolved, three-dimensional reacting structures in detonation waves propagating through ethylene-based mixtures at 1 atm.

Images of chemiluminescence are recorded simultaneously by five cameras through a cylindrical sapphire test section, and a custom calibration procedure is developed to account for refraction through the cylinder.

The images are combined to reconstruct an effective emission source term field at megahertz rates.

Reconstructions are reported for a persistent spinning detonation, a failed spinning detonation, and a case with counter-propagating transverse fronts.

The reconstructed fields enable visualization of wave morphologies, determination of the axial and azimuthal wave speeds, and estimation of key geometric and kinematic parameters.

These results demonstrate time-resolved chemiluminescence tomography as a non-intrusive tool for resolving volumetric detonation dynamics that are difficult to infer from point, planar, or line-of-sight diagnostics.