A logic model for cook-off phenomenology in high explosives

Logic models are valuable tools in the development of predictive models for complex physical processes. The use of deductive logic in the form of a possibility tree makes it straightforward to develop a comprehensive set of unique, alternative paths that describe the system. We demonstrate the power of this approach for the complex process of cook-off of high explosives (HE). The possibility tree describes the causal paths from heating HE to the alternative end states. One of these end states is a violent reaction. Conversion of the tree to the equivalent digraph yields a valuable visualization tool for examining the relationships between sub-processes and provides a sound framework for the development of analytical models.