Modeling the shock-induced multiple reactions in a random bed of metallic granules in an energetic material.

An investigation of shock–particle interactions in reactive flows is performed using an Eulerian hydrodynamic method with a hybrid particle level-set algorithm to handle the material interface dynamics. The analysis is focused on the meso- to macro-scale numerical modeling of a granular metalized explosive containing randomly distributed metal particles intended to enhance its blast effect. The reactive flow model is used for the cyclotrimethylene-trinitramine (RDX) component, while thermally induced deflagration kinetics describes the aerobic reaction of the metal particles. The complex interfacial algorithm, which uses aligned level sets to track deforming surface between multi materials and to generate the random shape of granule elements, is described for aluminized and copperized RDX. Then, the shock-induced collapse of metal particles embedded in the condensed phase domain of a high explosive is simulated. Both aluminized and copperized RDX are shown to detonate with a shock wave followed by the burning of the metal particles. The energy release and the afterburning behavior behind the detonating shock wave successfully identified the precursor that gave rise to the development of deflagration of the metal particles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]