The Effect of Charge Shape on Partially Confined Detonations

Abstract

More than 500,000 tons of obsolete and unwanted conventional weapons exist in the United States. The disposal of these unexploded ordnances, in an environmentally sound and cost-effective way, is of paramount importance. Different types of incinerators and detonation chambers have been proposed to eliminate these unwanted energetic materials. However, questions about the design of such facilities and the environmental consequences of their use must be answered. This paper describes numerical simulations of a large-scale, partially confined detonation facility. Detonation facility designs were evaluated by a series of axisymmetric, time-dependent simulations using FAST3D, a numerical model based on flux-corrected transport coupled to the virtual cell embedding algorithm for simulating complex geometries. The simulations assisted in determining the shape and size of the detonation charge mass that maintained the structural integrity of the facility. Comparisons of the pressure and structural analyses for spherically and cylindrically shaped RDX charges in a fixed volume show that the 50-lb spherically shaped charge resulted in an efficient detonation and maintained the structural integrity of the detonation facility.