A new experimental method for evaluating the detonability of fuel-air mixtures (FAMs) based on measuring the deflagration-to-detonation (DDT) run-up distance and/or time in a standard pulse detonation tube is used to rank gaseous premixed and nonpremixed FAMs by their detonability under substantially identical thermodynamic and gasdynamic conditions. In the experiments, FAMs based on hydrogen, acetylene, ethylene, propylene, propane-butane, n-pentane, and natural gas of various compositions, as well as FAMs based on the gaseous pyrolysis products of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) are used: from extremely fuel-lean to extremely fuel-rich at normal temperatures and pressures.
