Numerical Simulation of the Mechanically Coupled Cook-Off Experiment

Abstract

There has been a significant amount of recent interest concerning the behavior of High Explosives including work on an experiment known as the Mechanically Coupled Cook Off experiment in which a confined sample of polymer bonded explosive is heated and then ignited. This paper presents a finite element simulation of that experiment and provides comparisons with the experimental results. The numerical simulation includes elastic-plastic behavior of the confinement, thermal expansion effects, the mechanical and thermal response of the explosive, and a discrete crack propagation model. The results of the numerical simulation show that the general features of the experiment are reproduced.