Near-field dispersal modeling for liquid fuel-air explosives

Abstract

The near-field, explosive dispersal of a liquid into air has been explored using a combination of analytical and numerical models. The near-field flow regime is transient, existing only as long as the explosive forces produced by the detonation of the burster charge dominate or are approximately equal in magnitude to the aerodynamic drag forces on the liquid. The near-field model provides reasonable initial conditions for the far-field model, which is described in a separate report. The near-field model consists of the CTH hydrodynamics code and a film instability model. In particular, the CTH hydrodynamics code is used to provide initial temperature, pressure, and velocity fields, and bulk material distribution for the far-field model. The film instability model is a linear stability model for a radially expanding fluid film, and is used to provide a lower bound on the breakup time and an upper and lower bound on the initial average drop diameter for the liquid following breakup. Predictions of the liquid breakup time and the initial arithmetic average drop diameter from the model compare favorably with the sparse experimental data. 26 refs., 20 figs., 8 tabs.