Gasdynamic model of turbulent combustion in TNT explosions

Abstract A model is proposed to simulate turbulent combustion in confined TNT explosions. It is based on: (i) the multi-component gasdynamic conservation laws, (ii) a fast-chemistry model for TNT–air combustion, (iii) a thermodynamic model for frozen reactants and equilibrium products, (iv) a high-order Godunov scheme providing a non-diffusive solution of the governing equations, and (v) an ILES approach whereby adaptive mesh refinement is used to capture the energy-bearing scales of the turbulence on the grid. Three-dimensional numerical simulations of explosion fields from 1.5-g PETN/TNT charges were performed. Explosions in six different chambers were studied: three calorimeters (volumes of 6.6-L, 21.2-L and 40.5-L with L / D  = 1), and three tunnels ( L / D  = 3.8, 4.65 and 12.5 with volumes of 6.3-L)—to investigate the influence of chamber volume and geometry on the combustion process. Predicted pressures histories were quite similar to measured pressure histories for all cases studied. Experimentally, mass-fraction of products, Y P exp , reached a peak value of 88% at an excess air ratio of twice stoichiometric, and then decayed with increasing air dilution; mass-fractions Y P calc computed from the numerical simulations followed similar trends. Based on this agreement, we conclude that the dominant effect that controls the rate of TNT combustion with air is the turbulent mixing rate; the ILES approach along with the fast-chemistry model used here adequately captures this effect.