Prediction of Ideal Detonation Characteristics in High Explosives – Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract. For over 120 years, the Chapman-Jouguet hypothesis with equilibrium conditions (mechanical, thermal, and chemical) has provided the basis for "reasonably accurate" condensed phase detonation calculations. In these conditions of high pressure, modern, statistical mechanics based fluid equations of state describing the repulsive region of intermolecular potentials have met with considerable success. This is in spite of the lack of information for some product species, the neglect of pressure effects on intramolecular properties, finite rate processes such as phase transitions, and the uncertainties in inter-species mixture rules. The required level of accuracy of any prediction is application dependent. The challenges of addressing condensed carbon formation and clustering,as well as potential phase changes (amorphous-diamond-graphite) remain for oxygen-negative media. Accurate chemistry-implicit representations of Crussard curves and isentropic expansions as well as freeze-out conditions, are all areas ripe for future development. This paper will briefly review current fundamental equations of state used in computer codes for detonations and discuss possible future refinements to enable more robust calculations for detonation applications in computationall intensive CFD analyses or similar.