Detonationlike

Detonationlike is an adjective used to describe processes in which a reactive front propagates through a medium with high pressure and abrupt energy release that resembles a detonation, but does not necessarily meet the formal criteria of a self-sustained detonation. The term is descriptive and used across disciplines to distinguish rapid, shock-driven reactions from slower deflagrations.

In gases and mixtures, detonationlike fronts can arise during fast deflagration-to-detonation transitions, under strong confinement, or when reaction kinetics closely couple to a propagating pressure wave. In solids and energetic materials, shock-induced reactions or rapid phase transitions can produce detonation-like fronts, where energy release is dominated by, but not strictly identical to, detonation physics, and where material boundaries and inhomogeneities play a role.

Commonly, detonationlike fronts are sharp and generate pronounced pressure transients, yet their propagation speed, stability, and structure may differ from classical detonations described by CJ theory and ZND models. Experimental observation relies on high-speed diagnostics such as Schlieren or interferometric methods, while analysis uses reactive compressible-flow models with adjustments for non-ideal equations of state, multi-phase effects, or confinement.

The term remains informal and is used to communicate that a front behaves similarly to a detonation in some respects, without asserting a true detonation. It is most often encountered in research on rapid reactive flows, deflagration-to-detonation phenomena, and related energetic-material contexts.