Toward a Thermal Disequilibrium Multiphase Model for High Explosives Containing Metallic Particles

Abstract

Abstract To investigate the effects of explosive composition on Al combustion, in particular regarding its oxygen balance, several liquid mixtures are experimentally studied with varying oxygen balance. They are then loaded with Al particles and the velocity of detonation (VOD) is recorded. Computational results with the help of conventional Chapman Jouguet (CJ) codes are compared but fail to reproduce experimental observations. A new multiphase flow model out of thermal equilibrium is then considered. Two options are considered as limiting cases: stiff thermal relaxation and vanishing heat exchange between Al and detonation products. With this last option, predictions are in excellent agreement with the experiments. This suggests that temperature disequilibrium plays a major role in heterogeneous explosives detonation dynamics. Keywords: detonation wavesheterogeneous explosiveshigh explosivesmultiphase flowsnonideal explosives Acknowledgments This work was funded by Delegation Generale de l'Armement (DGA). The authors are grateful to the anonymous referees and the editors for their valuable help in improving the quality of the manuscript.