Study on the Mechanism of the Deflagration to Detonation Transition Process of Explosive

Abstract

We present a numerical study of the mechanisms of the deflagration to detonation transition (DDT) process of explosives to assess its thermal stability. We treated the modeling system as a mixture of solid explosives and gaseous reaction products. We utilized a one-dimensional two-phase flow modeling approach with a space–time conservation element and solution element (CE/SE) method. Simulation results show that in the chemical reaction process a plug area of high density with relatively slow chemical reactions preceeds the new violent reactions and the consequent detonation. We found that steady detonation occurs at the regions where physical characteristics, such as pressure, density, temperature, and velocity, peak simultaneously. These simulation results agree well with high-temperature DDT tube experiments.