Explosion Scenarios & Propagation of Burning Fronts
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Presenter : TBD
Suggested Starting Points
Assigned Reading
Discussion
- What is the difference between a "deflagration" and a "detonation"? Generally speaking, deflagration is subsonic and propagates through thermal conductivity. Essentially, fire as we know it is deflagration. Detonation is a supersonic shock wave and propagates through a fluid due to an energy release in a reaction zone. Material ignites due to temperature increase from compression from the shock wave, and the burning releases energy. Detonation is more powerful than deflagration.
NOTE: According to Firefox, "deflagration" isn't a word. At what point does our vocabulary stop becoming specialized and start becoming real words as according to spell check? Just wondering.
- What are the problems with a pure deflagration?
- What are the problems with a pure detonation?
The problems with a pure detonation is that all isotopes created from the explosion would be the Iron group (Fe,Co,Ni). This however is not what is seen observationally.
- Looking at late-time spectra from a Type Ia SN, what would asymmetries from the deflagration/detonation look like?