Development of a numerical capability for simulating non-ideal explosives and reactive materials

There is continuing motivation to develop and attain numerical modelling capabilities to better assess, understand and evaluate blast effects from explosive threats for UK Defence and Security. In line with this, significant efforts have been made by the Terminal Effects Simulation Team (TEST) at Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) to introduce novel functionalities, such as a capability to model porous explosives, which has led to promising results, but ongoing work is required to validate outputs before advancing development. On the other hand, non-ideal explosives, including Home Made Explosives (HMEs) are an especially complex entity to understand due to various effects including metal particle combustion, non-ideal detonation and manufacturing variability. Long-term research investigations are ongoing into the methods by which the phenomena can be better understood and simulated, meanwhile, current available modelling capabilities are being explored in commercial codes such as APOLLO Blastsimulator to progress Dstl’s ability to model non-ideal detonation and air blast events. This paper will detail the ever-evolving efforts to develop the numerical functionality described above, the role each capability plays in our competencies as an organisation and the future work required to further advance.