Progress in model development to quantify High Explosive Violent Response (HEVR) to mechancial insult
The rapid release of chemical energy has found application for industrial and military purposes since the invention of gunpowder. Black powder, smokeless powder of various compositions, and pyrotechnics all exhibit the rapid release of energy without detonation when they are being used as designed. The rapidity of energy release for these materials is controlled by adjustments to the particle surface area (propellant grain configuration or powder particle size) in conjunction with the measured pressure-dependent burning rate, which is very subsonic. In this way a manufacturing process can be used to engineer the desired violence of the explosion. Detonations in molecular explosives, in contrast, propagate with a supersonic velocity that depends on the loading density, but is independent of the surface area. In ideal detonations, the reaction is complete within a small distance of the propagating shock front. Non-ideal detonations in molecular and composite explosives proceed with a slower velocity, and the reaction may continue well behind the shock front. We are developing models to describe the circumstances when molecular and composite explosives undergo a rapid release of energy without detonating. The models also apply to the behavior of rocket propellants subject to mechanical insult, whether for accidents (Hazards) or the suite of standardized tests used to assess whether the system can be designated an Insensitive Munition (IM). In the application described here, we are studying an HMX (1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetraazacyclooctane) explosive developed in the UK, which is 91% by weight HMX and 9% binder-plasticizer. Most explosives and propellants, when subjected to a mechanical insult, drop or impact that is well below the threshold for detonation have been observed to react violently. This behavior is known as High Explosive Violent Reaction (HEVR). The basis of our model is the observation that the mechanical insult produces damage in a volume of the explosive near the trajectory of the impactor. The damage is manifest as surface area through the creation of cracks and fragments, and also as porosity through the separation of crack faces and isolation of the fragments. Open porosity permits a flame to spread easily and so ignite the surface area that was created. The surface area itself leads to in increase in the mass-burning rate. As the kinetic energy and power of the insult increases, the degree of damage and the volume of damage both increase. Upon a localized ignition, the flame spreads to envelop the damaged volume, and the pressure rises at an accelerated rate until neither mechanical strength nor inertial confinement can successfully contain the pressure. The confining structure begins to expand. This reduces the pressure and may even extinguish the flame. Both the mass of explosive involved and the rate at which the gas is produced contribute to each of several different measures of violence. Such measures include damage to the confinement, the velocity and fragment size distributions from what was the confinement, and air blast. Figure 1 illustrates the interaction of the various phenomena described above. Our model comprises several interacting elements. The production of damage, the ignition criterion, the mass rate of burning (reaction rate), the equations of state and constitutive models of the solid explosive reactant (unburned) and gas products, flame propagation in damaged reactant, and the progressive failure of the confinement are all elements of the model. The model is intended for implementation in a general-purpose simulation program (hydrocode) that solves the partial differential equations for the conservation of mass, momentum, and energy in conjunction with equations of state and strength.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 945824
- Report Number(s):
- LLNL-TR-405903; TRN: US0901246
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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