Turbulent mixing and afterburn in post-detonation flow with dense particle clouds

Augmentation of the impact of an explosive is routinely achieved by packing metal particles in the explosive charge. When detonated, the particles in the charge are ejected and dispersed. The ejecta influences the post-detonation combustion processes that bolster the blast wave and determines the total impact of the explosive. While the classical Eulerian-Lagrangian (EL) methods can accurately handle the post-detonation mixing zone in the dilute regime, the Eulerian-Eulerian (EE) method is preferred for the initial dense clustering. Here, we summarize the results obtained using both EL and EE methods as well as demonstrate a new hybrid EE-EL approach. The EL method, which is also developed to handle both dense and dilute flows using the discrete equation method, is used initially to study the dispersion of a relatively dense particle shell by blast waves. The results show distinct clustering of particles that later leads to the formation of jet-like structures as seen in experiments. Then, the hybrid EE-EL method is used to study the dispersion of dense clouds from explosives packed with aluminum (reactive) or steel (inert) particles. A transitioning criterion is used to smoothly transfer the initially dense Eulerian mass to Lagrangian particles when dilute. Results are presented to demonstrate that the approach is computationally efficient and accurate for certain ranges of particle sizes and loading. It is shown that mixing between the ambient and post-detonation products can be enhanced when particles are present in the flow. Furthermore, the afterburn of aluminum particles increases in the average gas-phase temperature by 100 K - 200 K when compared to a case with non-reacting particles. More studies are still needed to establish a robust strategy for wider applications.