Modeling two-dimensional detonations with detonation shock dynamics

Abstract

One of the principal shortcomings of the computer models that are presently used for two-dimensional explosive engineering design is their inadequate treatment of the explosive’s detonation reaction zone. Current methods lack the resolution to both calculate the broad gas expansion region and model the thin reaction zone with reasonable detail. Recently an alternative method for modeling the reaction zone has been developed. This method applies when the radius of curvature of the shock is large compared to the reaction-zone length. In this limit, the dynamics of the interaction between the chemical heat release and the two-dimensional flow in the reaction zone is quasisteady. It is summarized by a relation Dn(κ), between the local normal shock velocity Dn and shock curvature κ. When this relation is combined with the kinematic surface condition (an equation that describes how disturbances move along the shock), the two-dimensional reaction-zone calculation is reduced to a one-dimensional calculation.