ACCELERATION AND HEATING OF METAL PARTICLES IN CONDENSED EXPLOSIVE DETONATION

Abstract

For condensed explosives containing metal particle additives, a characteristic parameter, δ, can be defined as the ratio of particle diameter to detonation reaction zone length. Particle heating and acceleration are studied between the interaction limits ranging from frozen shock to thin‐detonation‐front diffraction followed by an expanding products flow. The intermediate case where the particle diameter and reaction zone length scales are comparable is considered as a function of metal mass fraction and particle packing to determine momentum and heat transfer during the detonation interaction time. The present investigation employs 3D mesoscale simulations to further conduct parametric studies in the 0.1⩽δ⩽10 range by varying the particle diameter and reaction zone length. The results are quantified as velocity and temperature transmission factors, which indicate a strong dependence of particle acceleration and heating rate on δ for dilute particles and high metal mass fraction conditions.