Microscopic simulations of supersonic and subsonic exothermic chemical wave fronts and transition to detonation.

We perform microscopic simulations using the direct simulation Monte Carlo approach to an exothermic chemical wave front of Fisher-Kolmogorov, Petrovsky, Piskunov-type in a one-dimensional gaseous medium. The results confirm the existence of a transition from a weak detonation or deflagration to a Chapman-Jouguet detonation wave, that we already investigated at the macroscopic scale [G. Dumazer et al., Phys. Rev. E 78, 016309 (2008)]. In the domain of weak detonation or deflagration, the discrepancy between the propagation speeds deduced from the simulations and the macroscopic balance equations of hydrodynamics is explained by two microscopic effects, the discretization of the variables, known as cutoff effect, and the departure from local equilibrium. Remarkably, the propagation speed of a Chapman-Jouguet detonation wave is not sensitive to these perturbations of microscopic origin.