Implementation and Validation of the JWL++ Reactive Flow Model
 

The Synthetik team is excited to announce the implementation and validation of the JWL++ Reactive Flow model as part of our free and open-source CFD airblast code blastFoam.

The JWL++ Reaction Flow model was developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and allows the addition of kinetics to detonation events i.e., the time-dependence of the explosive’s chemical reaction, while still enabling efficient, scalable calculations suitable for engineering and design. It’s addition greatly enhances timing accuracy and load characterization especially for near-contact explosive scenarios.

Implementation of the JWL++ Reactive Flow model allows blastFoam to capture phenomena such as 'size effect'* and 'detonation front curvature'** both of which are important when modeling near-contact explosive scenarios.

* Size Effect: The decrease of detonation velocity with decreasing charge radius

** Detonation Front Curvature: Induced by edge lag of the detonation front as energy is lost to the exterior of the charge

blastFoam is available for download here: https://github.com/synthetik-technologies/blastfoam

Learn more about Synthetik Applied Technologies here: https://www.synthetik-technologies.com

Videos of our validation simulations can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/dqjAC4gtoWY

References:

1. Souers, P. C., Anderson, S., Mercer, J., McGuire, E. & Vitello, P. JWL++: A Simple Reactive Flow Code Package for Detonation. 5 (2000). https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/...3E3.0.CO%3B2-3

2. Guilkey, J. E., Harman, T. B. & Banerjee, B. An Eulerian–Lagrangian approach for simulating explosions of energetic devices. Computers & Structures 85, 660–674 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compstruc.2007.01.031