CHEETAH: A next generation thermochemical code

Description/Abstract

CHEETAH is an effort to bring the TIGER thermochemical code into the 1990s. A wide variety of improvements have been made in Version 1.0. We have improved the robustness and ease of use of TIGER. All of TIGER`s solvers have been replaced by new algorithms. We find that CHEETAH solves a wider variety of problems with no user intervention (e.g. no guesses for the C-J state) than TIGER did. CHEETAH has been made simpler to use than TIGER; typical use of the code occurs with the new standard run command. CHEETAH will make the use of thermochemical codes more attractive to practical explosive formulators. We have also made an extensive effort to improve over the results of TIGER. CHEETAH`s version of the BKW equation of state (BKWC) is able to accurately reproduce energies from cylinder tests; something that other BKW parameter sets have been unable to do. Calculations performed with BKWC execute very quickly; typical run times are under 10 seconds on a workstation. In the future we plan to improve the underlying science in CHEETAH. More accurate equations of state will be used in the gas and the condensed phase. A kinetics capability will be added to the code that will predict reaction zone thickness. Further ease of use features will eventually be added; an automatic formulator that adjusts concentrations to match desired properties is planned.