Basic parameters of detonation of hydrogen mixtures. Part I

A large pool of data on the detonation hazard of hydrogen in mixtures with oxygen and air in the range of concentrations from the lean to rich limit with variations of the initial pressure and temperature (individually or jointly) are reported. The most important parameter is the critical energy of detonation initiation, which serves as a measure of the explosion hazard of combustible systems: the smaller the value of this parameter, the more hazardous the mixture. The number of reliable measurements of the critical energy of detonation initiation in scientific publications is rather limited (which is even more true for waves with different symmetries) owing both to difficulties in measuring this parameter and to imperfection of mathematical models of energy transfer from the external booster to the combustible mixture.